


Broken Down World

by Meekahsa (orphan_account)



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan, Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-29
Updated: 2017-02-20
Packaged: 2018-05-03 22:52:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 18
Words: 103,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5310098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Meekahsa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After losing his mother to a ghoul, Eren swore to follow in his father's footsteps and become a top-ranking CCG agent. Unbeknownst to him, his girlfriend of five years is a ghoul – a species he vowed to exterminate. That is, until Eren is forced to see her world from a new point of view.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue - The Fox Ghoul

_Fuck._

That's all Eren could think as he took off down the dark alley, his lungs threatening to burst through his ribcage as he ran as fast as his body would allow him to. Every muscle ached, every fiber in his body was on fire. None of that mattered. He would keep pushing himself, he would keep moving until he was somewhere he would be on more level ground with the monster. A low, scornful chuckle reverberated throughout the claustrophobic row of houses, pushing the young Investigator to move faster.

_Fuck, fuck, fuck!_

All Eren could think of was all the times his father warned him of scenarios like this, of the dangers of ever being caught without his quinque. They lived among people, almost always undetected to a human. They could be anywhere at any given time, as they blended into the human society with a frightening amount of ease. Young or old, healthy or sickly, friend or enemy – it didn't matter. It never mattered. They could be anyone in your life at any time, and you'd never know until you were staring into the creature’s hungry, bloodthirsty, soulless red and black eyes. The only thing his father had taught him, had beaten into his mind since he was just a boy, since he handed him his first quinque, was that those weapons were the only defense a human being had against the predators known as ghouls.

As a Ghoul Investigator, a member of the police force that tried to protect people from the horrible creatures, it was a no-brainer. You never left your quinque behind when you went out. Ever. It was a death sentence. And yet, here he was, running from a fucking ghoul like a rat runs from a hungry cat, completely defenseless against the monster.

For the briefest second, he dared to look behind him, to steal a glance at the figure that was inevitably in pursuit. He never got to see it, however, for the next thing Eren was aware of was a dull pain in his gut and crashing backwards into one of the buildings in the dimly lit alley. He groaned and moved to sit up, but was suddenly face-to-face with the masked face of the ghoul that had ambushed him. It had him pinned against the wall, hand on his throat. The creature’s red eyes burned with excitement and desire and it opened its mouth in a wide grin, revealing rows of human-like teeth.

“You're a CCG agent, aren't you?” The ghoul spoke for the first time, with a husky male voice. His kagune traced the contours of Eren's neck lightly, grazing him just enough to draw blood in the patten it drew. “Well,” the ghoul mused, his voice taunting, “you're not a very smart one, are you?” Eren just glared at the monster, his voice caught in his throat as a direct result of the grip the ghoul had on his neck. He kicked at the predator, but it didn't seem to phase him. The ghoul's tentacle-shaped kagune was suddenly poised over the creature's shoulder, sharpened into a spear that he knew was seconds away from penetrating his heart. Eren kicked at him in vain, knowing it would do him no good. It was the end. He was stupid, and he was about to be devoured by the very thing he had vowed to destroy, he-

Suddenly, the ghoul hissed in pain and dropped him, clutching at his face and backing up a few feet. Maroon-colored crystals were embedded into his skin, just under his left eye. Eren loomed up in shock, because he recognized those crystals. They were things only another ghoul could produce.

A second ghoul silently dropped down from the rooftops of one of the buildings overlooking the alley, landing lightly on the ground due to the large red wings that spread from it's shoulders. This ghoul was shorter than the other one, with a long white wig covering it's hair and a long hooded jacket concealing any other part of its skin. Like the other ghoul, this one was also wearing a mask, but instead of the plain black and white patten on the injured ghoul's mask, this one was far more intricate. It took the form of a white fox head, muzzle and ears slightly protruding from the rest of the curved surface. The white was emblazoned with red insignias on the forehead and muzzle. However, this one paid Eren no attention and had it's red eyes focused on the other ghoul.

As the fox-faced ghoul stepped in front of Eren, back facing him, he saw something that was truly unusual: in addition to the large wings this ghoul possessed, it was also revealing a long tail that stared attached at the base, just under the tailbone, and split off into three appendages the more they protruded from its body.

The tentacle-wielding ghoul's expression hardened as the fox took slow, deliberate threats toward him. He started to utter something to the newcomer, but never got a chance as the other ghoul lunged at him so quickly that it even surprised Eren. In an instant, the ghoul's tails had fused together to form one razor-sharp blade that had lashed forward and ripped open his neck. The ghoul had barely collapsed, gurgling on blood in the disturbing way that Eren had heard so many times in the past, before the ghoul’s tail come down a second time, beheading the dying creature in a single strike. The fox face then turned to look at Eren for the briefest moment, blood splattered all over the white of the mask, before the ghoul’s tail took it's previous form and it jumped back up into the air, disappearing over the building on a pair of powerful wings.


	2. A Ghoul's Kagune

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: This chapter is pretty information-heavy in places, but that's because I'm writing this in a way that I want people who aren't familiar with Tokyo Ghoul to be able to have a basic grasp of the terminology that will be used throughout the fanfiction. Ghouls are creature with their own organs, different cell types, and even the different kagunes have specific names - they basically possess their own detailed biology, so I'm outlining the basics of that in this chapter. This will be the only chapter this dense.

“Turns out that ghoul you had a little date with last night was in fact the binge eater we've been after for months.” Eren looked up from the stack of papers he was going through, as his partner walked into the small office. Jean carelessly tossed a small envelope onto the desk, just adding to the growing mound of forms Eren was being forced to go through. “At least, that's what Marco seems to think after running some tests at the lab. Said the fluid we’ve been finding at the attack sites matches the DNA of the corpse you brought in last night.” Eren didn't even look up. Jean scowled at him, leaning against the doorframe in the entrance of the room. “Oi!” he snapped. “Earth to Eren!” Finally, the brunet looked up at him. ****

“What? I told you I was busy.”

“Did you even hear what the hell I just said?” Eren looked down again.

“Nope.”

“That ghoul that kicked your ass last night was the binge eater that you've been borderline stalking for the last three months.” That did seem to pique Eren's interest, but not nearly as much as Jean was expecting it would.

“That's one good thing to come out of last night.” Eren replied, still not looking up. It wasn't that Eren wasn't happy to hear that the binge eater had finally been killed – him and Jean had been on that ghoul's case for much longer then either of them had ever anticipated. You would think it wouldn't be that damn hard to track down a ghoul with an overly voracious appetite, one that had been killing numerous people a week for way longer than the CCG should have allowed, but he had proved highly exclusive, giving them no leads and only bloody crime scenes. It had only gone to strengthen Eren's previous opinions, considering that it had been proven many times that ghouls could easily survive one one corpse a month. They were just bloodthirsty killers – he didn't care what the minority of people who actually supported the rights of ghouls believed, that they “only did it because they needed to survive”. He had seen enough binge eaters in his day to know that was a load of bullshit.

So, yes, it was safe to say he was ecstatic that this most recent binge eater in Shiganshima had finally been destroyed. He was relieved, but he couldn't quite get the events that had transpired last night out of his head. Not only had his life been spared, by a ghoul of all things, but this particular ghoul – the Fox Ghoul, as he had reported it – had been unlike any other one he had ever seen, from its peculiar behavior all the way to the downright frightening kagune it had possessed. It hadn't paid him the slightest bit of attention, even though he had been helpless against the binge eater. The Fox hadn't even really shown any predatory intentions, either. It just slaughtered the other ghoul, looked at him, and then vanished. Cannibalism between ghouls was rare, but not unheard of, but it clearly hadn't been attempting to feed at all, either on him or on the other ghoul.

Eren could only assume that the Fox had acted on a desire to simply kill, and nothing else. And Eren wasn't sure if found that in itself more alarming than the fusion kagune this ghoul had used in the slaughter. He truly had never seen anything like it.

“So,” Jean sighed, breaking the silence in the small cubicle as he sat down in a chair opposite Eren, “tell me about this new ghoul you saw last night, since it is so clearly about to become your newest obsession.” 

Eren slid a tablet of paper toward him, where he had drawn what he could remember of the ghoul's appearance. “I didn't hear it speak, but it had a mask that was shaped like a fox. I had never seen it before last night.” 

Jean's brown eyes lifted from the sketch after a few long moments, his expression skeptical. “It had wings  _ and  _ a tail? Are you sure you weren't just hit on your head a little too hard?” 

“Why the hell do you even bother asking me if you're just going to question everything I say?” Eren snapped at him. “I know what I saw. The damn thing flew down from a building, attacked the other ghoul with a bikaku, then flew away. It barely even noticed I was there.”

“It probably smelled you,” Jean snorted. “The scent of your horrific body oder assaulted the poor thing's nostrils and it bailed right the hell out of that death trap.”

“You know,” Eren replied, feeling annoyingly indignant over the fact that Jean had just told him that he wasn't killed because smelled, “the other ghoul was more than ready to eat me.”

“Yeah, but that ghoul was a binge eater.” Jean laughed. “Any ghoul with any sort of refined tastes wouldn't even lick you.”

Eren looked up at the taller man long enough to fling a pen at him. “Get the hell out of my office.” Jean smirked at him and stood up.

“Hate to break it to ya, Jaeger, but we're partners. This is _our_ office, and it will be in goodness and in health, as long as we both shall live.”

“Or as long as the same place signs our paychecks,” Eren muttered as Jean made his way to the door.

“Eren, I really don't get why that ghoul is bothering you so much,” he sighed. “It hasn't done anything, and you even admitted that it didn't even threaten you. Focus your energy on actually dangerous ghouls, not some random one that thought it would be fun to kill a ghoul we've been after for months.” When Eren didn't answer, he opened the door, but not before offering one more piece of advice. “Maybe talking to Armin will help. He might have some insight for you.”

Eren just sat back in his chair for about a minute or so, fighting the truth in his annoying partner's words, before stifling a sigh and gathering up his papers. Jean was right; if anyone would know anything about this ghoul, Armin world. Eren stepped out of his office into the busy lobby of the CCG Headquarters in Shiganshina. The room was large and wide, the hub of the building, which was centered by a desk that had “Commission of Counter Ghoul” printed on the front in wide, bold letters. Numerous paths extended from the central room, leading to various departments of the headquarters, marked with plaques labeling the purposes of each specific agency housed within it. Eren took the hallway to his immediate left, to the research wing, where he was certain he'd find Armin.

Armin Arlert was Eren's oldest friend in the world, having met him when they had both been old enough to play in their adjacent backyards, and had remained as close brothers as the years had went on. Their career choices had brought them both to the CCG in adulthood, but for very different reasons. Eren was a Ghoul Investigator, a part of the field police force that identified ghouls out of the sea of humans, flushed them out, and eventually destroyed or arrested them depending on their crimes, though Eren himself was more partial to just killing them.

Armin, on the other hand, found ghouls more fascinating than he did dangerous. Ever since they were boys, he had been borderline obsessed with the concept of ghouls, of such a deadly predatory species that were so much like humans, yet so different. How did they come to be? Why were they _only_ able to digest human meat? Why did other food sources make them physically ill? Those were the questions Eren would constantly be bombarded with, and though he never had any answers for his inquisitive friend, those were the questions Armin had sought answers to when he joined the CCG''s research wing as an expert on ghoul biology. These days, Armin was the lead researcher – he knew everything the human race knew about ghouls, and was constantly testing new theories he had. Yeah, if anyone could explain how the hell the Fox Ghoul had two kagunes, it would be Armin.

Eren had barely turned down the hallways before he heard Armin's voice as plain as day, coming from one of his seminar halls. Eren quietly opened the door and slid into the room. His blond friend was standing in front of a class of ten young men and women, looking at a projected image of a human body with four regions circled.

“Rc cells are what gives ghouls their enhanced physical abilities, as well as serving as the primary ingredient in their kagunes,” he was saying, projecting his voice over the relativity small class. “We as humans do possess them as well, with an Rc factor usually between two-hundred to five-hundred, but they have substantially more, with an Rc factor of one-thousand to eight-thousand at any given time.” He paused for a moment to draw a crude circular object on the chalkboard. “These excess Rc cells are stored in and released from an organ called the kakuhou that can manifest in four different locations on the body, depending on the ghoul's Rc 'type'. When the Rc cells are released from the kakuhou, the organ pierces the ghoul's skin and a kagune can then form.” Armin looked up for a moment, waiting for the class to take note of what he just said. He locked eyes with Eren and he scowled at him, possibly irritated that Eren had just barged into his classroom.

“The reason ghouls can blend in with humans so seamlessly is the fact that the Rc cells do not result in any exterior physical changes to a ghoul's body. This means that as long as the cells in the kakahou remain dormant, a ghoul has no difference in appearance to a human.” Armin's expression focused on the class again for a few moments, carefully studying their faces. “However, when the cells within the kakahou are released they change the appearance of a ghoul's eyes.” He gestured to a another picture on the board, of an eye with a sclera as dark as midnight and an iris the color of bloody crimson. “This is referred to as a kakagan, and this change in eye color is almost always accompanied by the emergence of a ghoul's kagune.”

“Now,” he continued, turning back to the board and ignoring the unwanted visitor, “a kagune is, in plain terms, a ghoul's primary predatory weapon. They are as individual as the ghoul that wields them, but can be categorized into one of four types, based on location, physical properties, and the ghoul's weaknesses.” He looked back at the class. “ _Every_ ghoul has a weakness, and being able to identify their Rc type and being aware of that weakness is integral to your survival as Investigators, if that is the path you choose to explore.” He turned to the image of the human body off to the side.

“The ukaku kagune usually resembles a large pair of wings that are released from the shoulderblade. The ghoul that uses an ukaku is blindingly fast and aggressive. They will hit hard and fast, trying to end the fight as quickly as they can, as their huge weakness is their energy. Sustaining an ukaku kagune drains energy from the ghoul very quickly, and if the battle drags out for long, they will exhaust themselves.” Armin drew down another shape, this time a crystal. “They are the only ghoul capable of launching projectiles, which take the form of crystals and can be deadly. They can also fly, so be well aware of that.”

The koukaku kagune,” he continued, pointing to the next lowest region on the body, “more often than not will look like a sword or a shield. They are dense, durable, incredibly heavy, and unlike the other Rc types, acts to slow the ghoul down considerably. It is released from just below the shoulderblade. These ghouls are by far the most resilient of the four, but they're not impenetrable. Their reduced speed makes it nearly impossible to dodge attacks and they can be worn down in the long run if you hit them hard and severe enough.” His fingers continued to moved down the diagram.

“The rinkaku almost always resembles tentacles that are released from the ghoul's lower back. They are nowhere near as fast as ukakus, but they hit the hardest of any other the of ghoul, by far. Their strength can even disarm koukakas with relative ease, so you must be hyper-aware of every move a rinkaku opponent makes. They also possess stronger and faster regenerative abilities than other ghouls.” Armin paused again. “Of course, all ghouls can easily regenerate injuries, but rinkaku users exceptionally so. However, their kagunes are extremely brittle and can be easily destroyed or cut off.” Finally, he pointed to the last highlighted space on the diagram.

“The final Rc type is bikaku, and can easily be the most difficult opponent you will face. The bikaku kagune typically will take the shape of a tail released from the tailbone, and they are the most balanced of all the Rc types. They have no notable weaknesses, but they don't excel in anything specific either. When imprisoned ghouls are killed to harvest kakuhous to make our quinques, the preferred kakuhou is that of a bikaku ghoul.”

Suddenly, there was a lot of commotion from the agents-in-training as they began to gather up their things in a way that was painfully reminiscent of high school. Armin didn't really seem to object to the activity, which led Eren to assume that the time period for Armin's little sermon was over. After the last person had left, Armin sat down with a sigh.

“Giving that big brain of yours a rest, Armin?” Eren asked, finally approaching his friend from his position in the back of the room.

Armin just rolled his eyes. “These people come here with nothing but blood on their minds, but none of them want to understand just what goes into having to fight ghouls. They want us to hand them a quinque and release them on the general public.” A heavily exasperated noise that sounded like a growl passed his lips as he leaned back in his chair, arms folded behind his head. “If you're going to be bloodthirsty, at least be smart about it.” His blue eyes met Eren's green ones. “Eren, I had to explain to one today that that a quinque is made from a ghoul's kagune because normal weapons can't damage ghouls. The most basic things about hunting ghouls they don't even have a concept of.”

“That's how newbloods are,” Eren replied. “They're here to be trained, as ignorant as they are. They-”

Armin held up his hand, silencing his friend. “Eren, please. Don't act all high and mighty about that. That's all you ever think about on the field, is killing ghouls.”

The brunet's eyes glared at Armin. “At least I knew the basics before I came here, which is more than can be said for those new people, unless you're just bitching for the sake of bitching.”

Armin shrugged. “You got me. But I guess we can't all be the sons of a first-class Ghoul Investigator that has been trained in quinque use since he could drive, can we, Eren?”

“I guess not.”

Armin's response to that was to chuckle and finally stand up out of his chair. “Anywho,” he said, opening the door to the small room and stepping out into the hallway with Eren directly beside him, “how goes things on the killing side of the force? I heard that you brought in that binge eater last night.”

“Well,” Eren said, scratching the back of his head, “that's only half the story.” Armin just looked at him expectantly, urging Eren to continue. “You know how Mikasa's birthday was last week? Well, we went out to that cafe a few blocks from her parents' house. I've been so busy with work and she's been swamped with schoolwork lately, so I thought it would be nice. I didn't even really think to bring my quinque with me because it was just supposed to be a nice time.”

“And did you two have fun?”

“We did. She left from the cafe to see her parents for a little bit then said she'd meet me back at our apartment later. It was a lot of fun until I was attacked by a fucking ghoul five minutes down the road from the restaurant.” Armin snorted with laughter, which earned him a glare from Eren.

“Thanks, pal. I'm glad that my safety means so much to you.”

Armin shook his head. “It's not that. Don't you think it would have been easier to just propose to her, rather than dancing with a ghoul to impress the girl?”

Eren shoved Armin into a wall. “If Mikasa ever saw me 'dancing' with a ghoul, she'd have a conniption. I already hear nonstop about how dangerous it is from both her and her parents – the last thing I would do would be to pick a fight with one in front of her.”

“Good job on that one, by the way.”

“Shut the hell up, Armin,” he snapped, ignoring the shit-eating smirk on his stupid face. “I would probably be dead right now if another ghoul hadn't shown up and killed the first one.”

Armin's face very quickly lost the teasing little glint to it. “Another ghoul attacked it?”

Eren nodded. “I can barely believe it, either. I've named it the Fox because that's the mask it was wearing.” Eren pulled out the detailed redrawing that Eren had done of the ghoul and handed it to him. “It looked at me, it knew I was there, but it didn’t so much as threaten me. It just killed the other ghoul and took off as quickly as it came.”

Armin's brow was furrowed as he was looking at the drawing Eren made. “Eren, are you sure-”

“ _Yes_ ,” he groaned in exasperation, “the kagune is accurate. That's why I wanted to show it to you. I'm not making it up, Armin. The Fox had traits of both an ukaku and a bikaku.” Silence filled the hallway as Armin continued to stare at the imagine. Suddenly, Eren could hear a familiar ring in ears. He pulled his phone out of pocket, a small smile turning his lips upward when he saw that image that was displayed on the phone as Mikasa's contact picture. He slid the screen upward with his thumb and pressed the phone against his ear.

“Hey, what's up?”

“Eren,” the voice on the other end was as smooth as silk, “are we still going out during your lunch break?”

Eren frowned. “I planned on it, yeah, why? Did something come up?”

There was a trace of a smile in her tone when she answered him. “Not on my end, but I've been sitting out in this parking lot for about ten minutes.”

Eren cursed out loud as his eyes flickered down to his watch. It was almost fifteen minutes past the time Eren had given her to meet him. “I'm sorry, I must have lost track of time.”

That time, Mikasa actually did laugh. “Yeah, I figured. Just get out here before I call Jean.”

“Please, don't put yourself through that just to prove a point,” Eren said with a grimace. He heard one more laugh before the call went dead on her end.

“Going on lunch?” Armin asked as Eren put his phone away.

“I think I've kept Mikasa waiting long enough.”

Armin just nodded. “I'll look into this while you're gone. A ghoul with a fused kagune isn't unheard of, I believe, but I'll need to look up specific examples because this subject is a little murky for me, even.”

“You have fun with that, and I'll be headed to Starbucks.”

“Just don't fuck in the bathroom,” Armin snorted, quickly moving out of Eren's reach before he faced physical retaliation, but that didn't stop Eren from throwing a wadded up piece of paper at his annoying blond head.

* * *

As promised, Mikasa was waiting in the parking lot just outside the front door. Eren had no sooner passed the Rc cell scanner that stood as the biggest deterrent for ghouls to come near this building that could see her small black car. He very quickly rushed to the car and flung himself in the passenger side, very grateful to get out of the crisp and freezing February air. When he finally looked at Mikasa, there was a smile present on her face.

“Cold out there?”

Eren gently leaned over and placed a kiss on her cheek. “How can I be cold when my heart warms at the sight of you?”

Mikasa just rolled her eyes, carefully backing her car out of the icey parking lot and out onto the main road. “Okay, Eren, I know that's the guilt for making me wait out here for ten minutes in the middle of February talking.”

Eren frowned at her. “I have no idea what you are talking about.” For a moment, Mikasa turned her eyes way away from the road to raise an eyebrow at Eren, which got a sheepish grin from him. “Look, Mikasa, it's not my fault that you refuse to enter that building. You could have sat in the lobby for ten minutes instead of this cold beast of a car.”

Mikasa kept her eyes fixed on the street. “Or you could have just been out here when you told me you were going to.” The smile on her lips betrayed the annoyed tone to her voice.

“Christ, Mikasa,” Eren mock sighed, smirking at her, “what do I have do to make it up to you?”

Mikasa looked up at him again. “Nothing, until I get off the damn road. I'm not going to get my car destroyed because you wanted to be a smartass so, Eren, you can wipe that look off your face. I know it.” Mikasa shifted the car into an idling state while a traffic light remained stuck on red.

Eren scoffed. “I'm personally offended that you'd think I would engage in just activities when you're driving.”

“You constantly do it when my undivided attention isn't place solely on you. Where we are and _what_ I'm doing makes no difference to you.”

“You make me sound like a needy little puppy dog.”

Mikasa snorted. “That isn't too far off.”

“I just came out here to have a good time, and I'm honestly feeling so attacked right now.”

Mikasa just burst out laughing after an attempted to hold it in failed miserably. “You're such an idiot, Eren,” she giggled, pulling into the Starbacks parking lot. Once inside, Eren was a bit indecisive as to what he wanted, but eventually settled on a chicken salad sandwich and a coffee identical to the one Mikasa ordered.

When they were both seated in a booth off to the side of the restaurant, Eren frowned at the lack of food she had purchased. “I thought we were going out for lunch?” he asked.

Mikasa shrugged. “I had a late breakfast at the university. It's only a little past noon.”

“Are you sure you don't want something?” he asked. “I can buy it for you.”

Mikasa shook her head. “I'm fine, Eren.”

Rather than arguing with her, which never ended very good for Eren, he instead opted to hold out of of his arms, inviting Mikasa to cuddle up against him, coffee in hand and he gently wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

“You know, we _are_ in public,” she muttered, but it was only a half-assed excuse for a protest, for Eren knew she was enjoying it as much as he was.

“I know,” he replied. “I also don't care, as long as you don't.”

Mikasa laughed. “I don't.”

“Good.” For a few minutes, they faded into a comfortable silence as Eren ate his sandwich and Mikasa slowly sipped at her drink. “So, how are things going for you at school?” Eren asked her. “It's been a while since you've said anything new about it.”

Mikasa just shrugged. “Same old, really. I'm just there to study my medicine and graduate and be done with it, but my classmates want me to be entertained by their various clubs and sororities.”

Eren snorted into his drink. “They want you to join a sorority? You? Mikasa Ackerman?”

“Are you implying something?” she asked.

Eren laughed. “I'm not implying anything, I'm stating outright that anyone who thinks you'd be caught dead in a damn sorority has known you a total of three seconds.”

“Try explain that one to my classmates,” she replied. “Hitch is bound determined that they're dragging me into every single thing they possibly can. I can't even remember the names of most of these things, I lost track after the fiftieth letter of the Greek alphabet.”

“There are fifty letters in the Greek alphabet?”

“I have no clue.”

* * *

When their car pulled up outside the front door to the CCG, Eren turned to face her again. “Are you sure you don't want to come in for a few minutes?

Mikasa just shook her head. “I can't. I have to get back for my next class in a half hour, and you need to get back to work.”

Eren frowned. “Aw, c'mon, Mika.”

Mikasa glared at him. “Don't pull that 'Mika' card on me, it won't work. You _need_ to get back to work.”

Eren sighed deeply in a tone that the Asian woman knew so painfully well – the tone he used every time he didn't get his way with her and he wanted to guilt her into it.

“Just please don't get killed after I drop you off, alright?” she sighed.

“My job isn't really as dangerous as you think it is, Mikasa,” Eren replied, his serious nature quickly returning.

That time, Mikasa actually took the time to turn her head to face his, her eyebrow raised. “Do you want to run that one by me again, Eren Jaeger?”

“I'm never alone,” he sighed; he had had this conversation with Mikasa many, many times in the past, which was why he tended to avoid discussing the details of his work with her. He knew it worried her, and for good reason. Anyone who had a loved one doing what he did would be concerned. But Eren knew he couldn’t just stop, ether. Someone needed to protect innocent people from ghouls. That was just the reality of the twisted world they lived in. “I'm always with my partner,” he continued, “and I'm always armed with my quinque when I’m on the job.”

Mikasa grimaced. “A quinque can only protect you so far. What happens if it's ever damaged or broken? What would you do then?”

Eren had to stifle a sigh. “Mikasa...” his voice trailed off when he saw her hands on the steering wheel. They were tense, grasped a lot harder than normal, to the point where he cold see the white of her knuckles.

“I know you're not going to stop,” she whispered. “I know it's important to you, Eren. But I don't think your mother's memory will be very honored when you've ended up in a hundred pieces digested in a ghoul's stomach. That's the opposite of what she would have wanted. ”

Eren was going to be angry at that relatively low blow, but he stopped himself when he saw her eyes. They were starting to water up and he couldn't be angry at her; she was only concerned about his welbeing and he couldn't lash out at her for that. Instead, he very gently cupped her face in his hands, brushing a strand of hair out of her eye with his index finger.

“Hey,” he whispered, giving her a soft smile, “I'll be fine. Please don't worry about me, Mikasa. Just focus on yourself, and I'll take care of myself, alright? Just trust me.”

Mikasa took in a deep breath, then let it out slowly, before managing to give him a ghost of a smile. “Alright. I'll see you when you get home tonight?”

Eren leaned in to kiss her on her forehead. “Of course.”

 


	3. The New Case

In Jean's defense, he played the whole “injured old man hobbling down the side of the road in the dead of night” act far better than Eren ever could have. The brunet followed his partner from a distance, ducking in and out of and behind buildings and alleyways, waiting for his assistance to be needed as Jean made relatively slow progress on a fake limp, but that was the intention. Eren was alert, his eyes constantly diverting from the hooded figure to the surrounding area, his finger looming over the clasp on the sliver briefcase in his right hand.

Suddenly, Eren notice something out of the corner of his eye – a flash of electric blue in the darkness of the night, as a figure lunged toward the injured form on the road ahead of it.

“Jean!” he shouted, and the blond man reacted to Eren's warning in an instant, narrowly rolling out of the way of the ghoul's kagune. The unmasked female drew herself to her full height, glaring at Jean with hungry red eyes. Her teeth was barred in something close to snarl as she tensed the blade jutting out from her shoulder and dived toward Jean a second time. Eren quickly brought his finger down on the latch of his briefcase. It began to unfold, the handle of the luggage forming the base of a large black axe that he swung at the ghoul, emerging from his hiding place. The flat of the blade hit her squarely in the waist, sending the ghoul flying into the side of a building.

“Thanks for the delay,” Jean grumbled as Eren thrust the quinque in his left hand toward his partner.

“Shut up and help me kill the damn thing,” Eren snapped back. The two Investigators split up, each approaching the ghoul from opposite directions. The ghoul finally stood up, fixing Eren in her soulless stare as she slowly moved toward him. Eren in turn kept his eyes on the ghoul, but was more focused on her heavy kagune. He shuffled toward the left, trying to maneuver her into a position that her back would be to Jean, which would making killing the defensive koukaka significantly easier.

She mimicked his motions, seeming to have forgotten that Jean was there. In an instant, the ghoul lunged at him, preparing to deliver a very heavy blow, but Eren was able to parry it with the flat part of his quinque. The force of the heavy-handed attack reverberated throughout the handle of the weapon he was holding, as Eren swung back at the ghoul in return, this time going for a hit that could have easily cleaved an entire limb off, but the kagune absorbed the strike like it was nothing – not even a scratch to indicate she was hit.

Eren followed the hit with another, then another – the ghoul was forced to put all of her energy into merely blocking his barrage of attacks, as the brunet left her no possible opening to hit him back, gradually luring her into a more desirable position to work past her significant defenses. For a brief moment, Eren peeked over her dark head, locking eyes with Jean, who had his own scythe-shaped quinque withdrawn. The ghoul took advantage of his momentary lapse in concentration to swing at him.

Eren was only barely able to sidestep her attack, given the weight of his quinque, which was also made from a koukaka kagune. It wasn't really ideal for fighting this particular ghoul, but he wasn't really in a position to be picky about the only weapon he had with him. Eren raised his axe, swinging at the ghoul once more. Very abruptly, the ghoul's kagune vanished and she leaped back out of the way of his attack with ease, relieved of the weight of her weapon. The quinque hit the ground where the ghoul stood only seconds before, completely missing her by a few inches. The ghoul gave him one last glare before turning and running away. However, she didn't get very far, as her retreat was stopped it it's tracks by the sharp end of Jean's scythe coming into direct contact with the side of her head, and the ghoul went down with barely a cry of pain.

“Nice try,” Jean muttered, staring down at the corpse of the ghoul.

* * *

When Eren woke up to the screeching sound of his alarm clock, he had to stifle a groan. Working until the wee hours of the night and then getting up six hours later to be in at eight was never a good idea, even if it was a self-inflicted decision. Reaching out blindly in the dark to shut the alarm off, Eren frowned as he sat up and saw a lack of a certain person in the bed beside him. Wasn't it Saturday? Mikasa never did anything school or work-related on Saturday. Fighting the urge to just crawl right back in his bed and sleep for twelve more hours, he stood up and shuffled out of the bedroom and into the adjacent kitchen in their small two bedroom apartment.

Mikasa, looking way too perky and alert for the fact that it was seven in the morning and she was awake of her own free will, looked up from the counter top she was leaned over when Eren made himself visible. “Glad you decided to join the living,” she commented as Eren threw himself into the first chair he saw, still only semi-conscious.

Stifling a yawn, Eren looked at her, his eyebrows raised. “Are you even human?” Despite being barely awake, Eren was aware of a rather appealing aroma coming from the corner of the kitchen where Mikasa was standing.

A smile turned her lips upward, as she reached into a cupboard over her head and pulled out a coffee mug.“The last time I knew, I was.”

“Then why the hell are you awake?” he asked her. “Isn't it your only day off?”

“That doesn't mean I have to sleep until dinner time.”

“Yeah, it kinda does. That's what a day off is for a normal human being.”

Skirting around the table in the middle of the small dining area, Mikasa made her way beside Eren and placed a small kiss on his cheek. “Maybe I'm not as human as I thought, in that case.” She handed him the cup that she had just poured up. Mikasa moved back to the oven, but didn't get very far as Eren gently wrapped his arms around her shoulders from behind, pulling her into a hug.

His lips grazed the back of her neck, making her shiver in a way that she never quite got used to. “You're right,” he breathed. “You're obviously an angel.”

“Oh my _god,_ Eren.” Mikasa turned around and playfully shoved him away, which was met with a wide grin from him. “If you had said things like that to be when we were growing up, I would have thrown something at you.”

“Well, that's just rude.”

“Go sit back down,” she chided. “Or go get ready for work. I'm trying to make you breakfast before you have to leave and you're just distracting me.”

A snort of laughter filled the room as Armin walked in, leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed. All he could see was that Eren had her practically rammed up against a countertop, and given the amount of times he had witnessed scenes like this one, he knew where it eventually led. “Are you two already at it?” he asked, his eyebrows raised. “Christ, it's not even noon.”

“Love knows no time limits,” Eren replied to him, giving Mikasa a kiss on the lips before pulling away from her.

“And neither does uncontrollable animalistic sexual urges,” Armin muttered, pulling himself up a chair, barely phased by the look Eren had just fired his way. “Don't give me any of that, Eren,” he added, taking a sip from his own mug of coffee that was already sitting on the table. “The furniture in this house has seen more trauma from you and Mikasa than a Vietnam Veteran.”

“That's a bit overdramatic,” Eren muttered, joining him at the table.

Armin didn't even look at him, too focused on a stack of papers sitting in front of him. “No it isn't and don't kid yourself. I've seen you two dry humping against-”

“Armin,” Mikasa suddenly cut him off, giving him a far more irritated look than Eren had been, “what do you want on your toast?”

Armin seemed to get the hint and chuckled once before replying. “Just butter is fine.” The blond looked up at Eren for a moment, as his friend was drinking his coffee pretty quickly, but that didn't do much for the dark bags under his eyes. “You look exhausted, Eren,” Armin commented, a frown on his face. “I hope you aren't planning on doing anything dangerous today, because caffeine won't make you any more alert against an angry ghoul.”

Eren shook his head. “No way. Jean and I killed two last night by setting up a trap, but we were out until almost four in the morning. He's not going to be any more eager to fight than I am. We'll probably just go over reports or something.”

“I asked Marco to look into that Fox ghoul of yours,” Armin replied. “Maybe we can talk to him when when we get to work.”

“Please,” Mikasa suddenly piped in, approaching the table as she was balancing three plates of food on two arms, “let's talk about something other than impending death at the table.” She sat the breakfast, pancakes, toast and eggs, in front of Eren and Armin, earning a thank you from both of them before sitting herself between them.

“It's not really that, Mikasa,” Armin replied. “Eren's just been curious about a ghoul that he encountered the other night, that's all. It was a pretty interesting one, actually. Apparently had a kagune with qualities of two different Rc types.”

“It is impending death in a way,” Eren muttered, pausing a moment to take a bite. “Any ghoul that's stupid enough to reveal to itself to a CCG agent has sealed its own fate.”

Armin raised an eyebrow at him. “That ghoul saved your ass, if I remember correctly. Would you really kill it after that?”

Eren just grimaced. “It's a _ghoul_. Nothing a ghoul does is due to sympathy or pity. They don't have human emotions. They're just killers.”

Armin hummed in response. “That's such a backwards way of thinking about them, Eren. We know virtually nothing about their motivations, besides the fact that ghouls literally can't digest anything except for parts of the human body.” Armin took another drink. “I work with ghouls all the time at the prison, and from what I can see, they seem sentient and self-aware.”

“You don't see the side to them I do,” Eren replied darkly. “The ghouls that are brought to you are so drugged up they can't even use their kagunes. I've seen them hunt, I've seen them kill. They're ruthless. They think nothing of the lives they are ruining or the people they are hurting. Even if they are intelligent, they sure as hell don't have feelings.”

“I know what a kagune can do, Eren,” Armin replied dryly. “Just because I've never been on the receiving end of one doesn't mean that I'm not just as knowledgeable about them as you are, if not more so. In fact, I'd almost bet you that I know a lot more about the capabilities of a ghoul's kagune than you do.” Eren opened his mouth to argue, but was cut off.

“You two can argue about how dangerous a kagune is when I'm not sitting right here,” Mikasa snapped, this time glaring at Armin. “I'm aware of how dangerous being involved with the CCG is, but I much prefer to be left out of these conversations.”

Armin looked at her apologetically. “I'm sorry, Mikasa, but I just have to prove Eren wrong in these conversations. He makes it way too easy.” Armin stood up

“Oh, shut up,” Eren snapped as Armin walked past him and towards the door. “Pain in the ass.”

“I’d watch that if I were you,” the blond warned, looking back at him from the doorway. “I'm still your ride to work, buddy.”

Mikasa came up to Eren's side right before he mirrored Armin's actions. Gently, she wrapped her arms around his waist, pressing her face against his neck. “Just be careful,” she mumbled.

Eren hugged her back, a smile on his face. “See you tonight.”

Eren met Armin outside their apartment in his car. The second they were on the road, Armin looked at his friend out of the corner of his eyes. “So, when are you going to get on with it?”

Eren paused to take a drink before answering him. “Get on with what?”

Armin turned his head slightly, his eyebrows raised. “Oh, gee, I don't know, Eren. You've only been talking about proposing to Mikasa for the last three months.”

Eren began to choke on the burning liquid that as in his mouth. Well, that was one way to be direct, regardless of f it wasn't entirely any of Armin's business when Eren chose to propose to his girlfriend. After he had caught his breath, Eren looked out the window. “It's complicated, Armin.”

“Eren, please,” he sighed in exasperation. “What part of this is even remotely complicated?”

“A lot of things,” Eren muttered.

“Such as?”

“I don't know if she's ready.”

“You've been dating her for five years.”

Eren stifled a sigh. “That doesn't mean anything.”

“It's _Mikasa_.”

“That's another thing that makes this complicated.”

As the car slowed to a stop at a traffic light, Armin turned to face Eren fully. “What, are you afraid she's going to tell you 'no?'”

“It's always a possibility.”

Armin just continued to fix Eren in a stare that was a mixture of violent disappointment and slight disgust. “You are absolutely ridi-”

“Alright,” Eren snapped, cutting him off, “I was going to ask her on her birthday, but...”

“But?” Armin probed.

“I forgot the ring,” he mumbled, which resulted in stark silence in the car for several seconds.

“You...forgot the ring?” Armin asked in something close to disbelief. “At home? On the night you planned on proposing to your girlfriend?”

“Jesus, Armin,” Eren grumbled. “Way to make me feel better about it.”

Armin tapped his fingers on the steering wheel for a few moments, watching the road, before finally sighing himself. “How on earth did you even manage that?”

“The fact that I felt like I was going throw up probably had a lot to do with it.” He paused for a second. “I still feel awful about it. We were both having an amazing time, Mikasa was happy, I was happy, everything was perfect...then I realized that I left the ring in my dresser at home.” Eren looked at Armin. “What was I supposed to say? 'Oh yeah Mikasa, I'd love for you to be my wife, but I forgot the ring'?”

Armin returned Eren's look, but with a far less joking demeanor than he had possessed moments before, the teasing gleam in his eyes replaced with a grin. “Eren, you could give that girl a bottlecap and she’d burst into tears. She loves you and just the fact that you would ask to share the rest of your lives together would be more than enough for Mikasa.”

That time, Eren smiled back at Armin. “Thanks.”

* * *

Once they got to the headquarters, Armin manged to convince Eren to go with him to the laboratory, as Marco apparently had noticed something about the binge eater while attempting to harvest his kaoukaka, and they all had decided to meet up in the forensic wing of the lab. Admittedly, this wasn't an area of the headquarters that Eren frequented much. It was restricted to all but the first and special-class Investigators and the researchers and various types of scientists who worked there every single day, unless you had permission and an escort by someone who was allowed access. That didn't really bother Eren at all, since he didn't really care about the technical side of what the CCG did. Eren wasn't even entirely sure what exactly all they did in the laboratory, besides DNA analysis and quinque development. It was an alien world to him, but he supposed that's why the laboratory was such a high-security area. It wasn't supposed to be general knowledge. Wordlessly, he followed Armin to a small chamber leading to the main room to the lab.

Armin shut the door to the small enclosed area. “Cover your eyes.”

Eren did as ordered, as a cold mist covered his entire body. “Do I even want to know what the hell that was?” he grumbled after the sensation stopped.

Armin laughed. “It's just a decontaminate. We can't let any type of potentially dangerous bacteria get into the laboratory.” Armin swiped his badge in the card key lock, the light flashed green, and he opened the door to a large central room to that branched off in separate locations wings. “Follow me.”

As Armin led him past several doors, Eren raised his eyebrow, a bit thrown off at just how huge this place was. “Jesus, Armin,” he said, “this place is big enough to hold half the population on earth.”

Armin stopped in front of the entrance to a relatively small hallway, before swiping his badge a second time. “If you think this is big, you should see the prison.”

“I don't arrest ghouls, so they will never be necessary,” Eren grumbled, earning him silence from his friend.

They made it to a small room, where Eren saw someone he recognized: a man of about his age, with dark hair and lots of freckles all over his face. Marco Bodt was both Armin's assistant and the leading DNA analyst the CCG had, and from what Armin said about him, he was damn good at his job. Marco was looking at a stack of paper on a clipboard when Eren and Armin entered his work area. The room was filled with filing cabinets and computers, centered by a large white table that held the corpse of the binge eater than Eren had brought in a few nights ago.

Marco was frowning, his brow furrowed, but that changed abruptly when he saw the newcomers. “Hey,” he said in greeting, looking at them for a second before tuning his attention back to the dead ghoul.

“Any luck with that kakahou?” Armin asked.

Marco shook his head. “Nah, that fox really did a number on it. I don't think there's any salvaging it.”

“Take a look at this, Eren.” Armin gestured him to follow, as he took a step to the left side of the ghoul's body.

Eren's eyes widened at what he saw. What he had previously thought was a mere decapitation attack from the Fox ghoul had been much more severe than he could have imagined. The binge eater was turned onto his stomach, exposing his back, which was cleaved wide open in a huge ravine of a wound that started at the base of the neck and ran all the way down to the ghoul's mid-back, ending at the exact spot the kakahou was located for a rinkaku.

“You said the Fox only hit him twice, right?” Armin asked, looking at Eren carefully.

Eren eventually tore his eye away from the mildly frightening sight and nodded. “Yeah, it ripped the throat open in one strike and beheaded him in the other one.”

“Well,” Marco added, looking up from his papers again for a second, “that's not all it did. That ghoul destroyed this ghoul's kakahou in the same hit that beheaded it.” Marco beckoned Eren to a second table set just lower, where a small sac was laying. If Eren hadn't known what a kakahou looked like, he probably wouldn't have even recognized the organ, which was so deeply punctured by the other ghoul's kagune that it looked like a deflated balloon. “The second we removed it from the corpse, the kagune disintegrated.” Marco looked up at Eren again. “I wonder if that was deliberate.”

“There's no doubt in my mind it was deliberate,” Armin replied. “That ghoul knew that an intact kakahou is required to make a kagune into a quinque, so it destroyed it before we could turn it into something to be used against other ghouls.”

“That is one powerful ghoul,” Marco mused, seemingly to no one in particular. “Strange that we've never heard from it before.”

That surprised Eren a bit. “At all?”

Marco shook his head. “We ran the DNA we got from it's crystals through a database, and no matches. This ghoul has never been reported at the scene of any crime, nor does it match anything else we have in our record, period. Nothing. It's a completely new ghoul.”

A silence fell between the three, broken only by the occasional beep from machinery in the background. Not even Eren could deny how rare of an occurrence that was. Shiganshina wasn't exactly docile when it came to ghoul attacks, but usually finding a ghoul's identity was like piecing a puzzle together. Usually you found DNA at the scenes of attacks, and when a ghoul was killed or even just seen, it was a simple matter of linking a face or an alias to the DNA. It wasn't very often that you found an entirely new ghoul altogether.

“On the bright side,” Marco added, looking at Armin, “I did notice something you might find interesting about the Fox's kagune.” Marco moved over to one of the filing cabinets, thumbing through it until he pulled out a folder, which he quickly flipped open. “While I was looking into it, I was curious about various aspect to this particular ghoul's kagune, and since we had quite a large number of the crystals from the Fox, I did a little extra exploring. I wanted to see if the Fox's Rc's cells biologically more resembled that of an ukaku or a bikaku, since it apparently possessed qualities of both.” He handed the forms to Armin for him to glance over while he was talking.

“Unsurprisingly, the Rc cells strongly resembled that of an ukaku ghoul. Given that they were from an ukaku crystal, that was to be expected. What was interesting was that the cell structure was slightly different, which I’ve never seen before. Different Rc cells exist, but they always have a very specific shape to them. This one was like a fusion of two different cell types.” Armin finally looked up at Marco, truly baffled. “What means,” Marco continued, “is that it is highly unlikely that this ghoul developed a second kakahou through cannibalism like some do, but rather was _born_ with a single kakahou that is capable of producing both an ukaku and bikaku kagune at the same time.”

“Is that even possible?” Eren asked, his eyebrow raised.

Marco shrugged. “We've never heard of one in Shiganshina, but that certainly doesn't mean that there's never been one reported in the entire history of our interaction together. Ghouls live all over the world, and some populations even avoid human beings altogether when they're not hungry.”

Eren didn't look convinced. “That sounds like a load of bull.”

“Well, Eren,” Marco replied, giving him a small smile as Armin handed over the folder once more, “you're the one that is so adamant you saw this hybrid. I believe you, especially after looking at a sample of that ghoul's Rc cells. If you're going to be so close-minded about theories regarding this ghoul, perhaps it's for the best that you continue to concern yourself with merely killing ghouls.”

Eren glared at him, his arms folded across his chest. “The next thing you're going to tell me is that human-ghoul hybrids are a thing.”

“You never know,” he replied. “Just because we've never seen one doesn't mean we never will.”

* * *

After his very eye-opening venture into research wing with Armin and Marco, Eren found himself engrossed deep in thought in his office, though he wasn't entirely sure why. Yeah, the Fox ghoul was definitely something special – it's behaviors and kagune alone were enough to make it stand out. But, still, it was just a ghoul. A ghoul normally wouldn't have had him so worked up about basically nothing.

“I can see you're working hard, Eren,” a voice suddenly sounded through the small room as the door to the office flung open haphazardly, slamming against the wall. Eren didn't even have to look up to know who it was. His name was Hannes – a man that Eren knew well from his childhood. Eren mostly remembered him from all the teasing he'd received at this man's hands, especially regarding how close him and Mikasa had grown after she'd moved to Shiganshina with her parents when she was nine years old. As him and Armin had grown and joined the CCG, not much had changed in that respect. Hannes was the same man that he had always been, the difference being that he was now more opt to call Eren lazy than to tease him for having a crush on a certain pretty neighborhood girl.

Not surprisingly, Eren saw his own father standing directly behind Hannes. Grisha and Hannes were long-standing partners on the force of Ghoul Investigators, having been together as a team since they both graduated training when Eren was just a kid. They were a formidable duo, both first-class Investigators that had brought hundreds of ghouls to justice over their careers. Grisha had been teaching Eren about his job at the CCG for years, and the death of Carla Jaeger at the hands of a ghoul had only furthered Eren's resolve to follow in his father's footstep. He'd be lying if he said that he didn't look up to Grisha a lot.

“I was up late last night,” Eren finally muttered to Hannes in response. “Get off my ass.”

He laughed in response. “Welcome to my world, kiddo. That just comes with the job description.” As he spoke, both Hannes and Grisha took a seat at the desk Eren was already using.

“What the hell do you two want?” Eren snapped, more to Hannes than anyone else, which just got another laugh from the blond.

“Eren,” Grisha said, and Eren shifted his gaze over to his father, “did you hear about what happened last night?”

Eren frowned at how grave the older man's face nook. “No, why?”

Hannes sighed. “Two Investigators were killed. Thomas Wagner was one of them.” Eren felt his eyes widen in shock at that. He hadn't really known Thomas or his partner very well, but they had been in the same training class together.

“What happened?” Eren asked, to which Hannes shrugged.

“They really haven't released any kind of public information about it, as it's still being properly investigated. All we know for sure is that if it was a ghoul, they weren't eaten. They were just killed and left totally intact.”

“It couldn't have been anything but a ghoul,” Grisha sighed in response. “They were both on-duty, they were both armed, and both their quinques were destroyed. It was a ghoul powerful enough to overpower two well-equipped Investigators, and one that was killing just to kill. It didn't even feed.” Grisha met the troubled gaze of his son. “Eren, I heard that you recently encountered a ghoul that showed similar behaviors.”

Eren frowned. “I did, but the Fox ghoul I saw attacked another ghoul and ignored me. Truth be told, that ghoul saved my life. It chose to leave me and didn't eat the other ghoul, either. It just flew away.” Hannes and Grisha looked at each other for a moment, apprehension evident in their expressions.

“So, it was an ukaku?” Hannes finally asked.

“Sort of,” Eren replied, which earned him a very confused look from the blond man.

“Sort of?” he echoed. “Eren, I think you've been doing this long enough to know a ghoul's Rc type when you see it.”

“That's not what I meant,” Eren snapped back. “The Fox was bikaku, too. It had two kagunes. I did talk to Armin and Marco about it, and they seem to think it's some kind of hybrid after looking at some crystals from it.”

The older adult were silent for a long time, until finally Grisha spoke up. “Eren, if that's true, this ghoul sounds incredibly dangerous. It has the potential to be a deeply disturbed creature. At the moment, it's motives are totally alien to us. It looks like it may be killing for joy, but that remains to be seen.” Grisha stood up, and Hannes copied his motions. “The case of the Fox ghoul will be taken up by a higher-ranked Investigator, as they are more qualified to deal with something as powerful as this one seems to be.” Eren opened his mouth to protest, but Grisha raised his hand, cutting him off.

“Focus on keeping yourself and your friends safe, Eren. If this Fox ghoul is another rouge killer, they're going to need your help.” His expression was soft. “Don't throw your life away for something as stupid as going after a ghoul that is more capable than you are. Keep your quinque with you at all times. Watch out for Armin and Mikasa, keep yourself safe, and let someone with more experience go after the Fox ghoul.”

  
  



	4. Mother Dearest

“It's getting late,” the blond ghoul muttered, looking at the time on his phone impatiently. For a moment, his golden eyes fell on his companion: a much taller, much more nervous looking dark-haired ghoul. “I was told he would be meeting us here almost twenty minutes ago.”

“Do you suppose he gave the wrong time?”

The blond shook his head. “No. I was told that since we needed help urgently, they were sending someone tonight.” He sighed, his fingers on his temple. “Besides, I paid that damn Smith a small fortune to send us one of the most powerful ghouls they have recruited.”

“I sure hope they live up to their reputation,” the taller ghoul muttered. “If they don't, we'll never-”

His words faded away as a new figure appeared in the alleyway directly behind them, walking toward the two ghouls with a somewhat cold expression. The ghoul was considerably shorter than them both in statue, looking not much taller than five feet or so, with short black hair and piercing blue eyes that even made the two ghouls feel a bit uneasy.

He finally stopped a few feet from them, leaning against one of the walls of the alley. “Reiner Braun and Bertoldt Fubar, I presume?” His voice was gruff and almost sounded bored from the pleasantries.

The two ghouls standing in the alleyway looked at the new arrival with skepticism in their eyes.

“You're from the Scouting Legion?”

“Unless you've been dealing with multiple organizations that send ghouls to kill things giving you problems, I'd say that is pretty damn obvious.”

“Aren't you a little short for an SSS class ghoul?” Reiner finally asked.

The ghoul's expression didn't change in the slightest. “I'm an SSS class ghoul because I've attacked CCG headquarters in fifteen different cities and survived every single time, and have been cannibalizing other inferior ghouls for more years than I can count. I would ask for your forgiveness that my height is underwhelming compared to what you were expecting, but I frankly could give a fuck less.” His piecing eyes drilled into Reiner's. “You wanted a powerful ghoul, you got one, but if I'm not up to whatever low standards you no doubt have, I'm just as okay with eating you as I am helping you. It's your choice, really.”

“He means no disrespect, Mr...?” Bertoldt probed quickly, looking at the angry short man, waiting for him to give them a name. He just glared at the taller ghoul, his expression cold. A sightly awkward atmosphere settled between the three until Bertoldt continued. “Erm, we really don't know who we're looking for, exactly.”

The ghoul raised his eyebrow. “Well, that's a bit of a problem, isn't it?”

“A few nights ago, a friend of ours was killed by the CCG,” Bertoldt said. “His name was Marcel, a rinkaku user with a somewhat overzealous appetite.” The shorter ghoul remained silent, hearing him out. “We don't know who the agent was, but Marcel just disappeared and we know that the CCG was behind it.”

“But you don't know who it was?” the cold ghoul echoed.

Bertoldt shook his head. “No, sir. No idea.”

“We just want justice for him,” Reiner added. “Marcel was like a brother to us, and we want that bastard to killed him to meet the same fate he did.”

“So, let me guess,” the shorter ghoul muttered. “Instead of playing detective, and attempting to come up with the identity of the agent that killed him, you want to pick off Ghoul Investigators one by one until you either find the one who did it, or until they're all dead.” It wasn't a question, but a statement.

Both of them nodded.

The ghoul sighed, closing his eyes. “Look, you two. I'm not going to say that you can't, nor will I refuse to aid you, but you need to be aware of the consequences that a line of action like this will take.” He looked at them again, his expression slightly less harsh. “If you take actions close to that of serial killing against the CCG, every ghoul in this city will suffer. Shiganshina will be listed as a dangerous cesspool full of high ghoul activity, one that is dangerous to human life, and the CCG will respond by sending an entire team of specifically trained agents that make first-class Investigators look like a pushover.” He paused to look at the two of them again. “You'll be fucking over every single ghoul that calls this place home. Are you willing to carry a burden like that for revenge?”

Reiner nodded without skipping a beat. “Yes. We are nomads. We’ll just move on to the next town What happens to the ghouls that live here is of no concern to us.”

The shorter ghoul raised an eyebrow, but didn't voice any opinion he might have had. “If that's your choice, so be it.” He turned his back on the two ghouls, feeling a simultaneous stab as his winged kagune erupted from his body. When he turned to look back and Reiner and Bertoldt, they looked somewhat alarmed by his unusual kagune. “I'm going to scope out the headquarters. I'll find you when I'm done.”

With that, he jumped onto the rooftop of a nearby building, using his wings for balance as he moved between the tops of the various houses in the tightly packed structure of Shiganshina.

“Erwin doesn't pay me enough for this horseshit,” he grumbled to himself as the large headquarters for the CCG loomed in the distance, standing out drastically from among all the smaller houses and shops. “Taking out an entire force of Ghoul Investigators just because they killed one ghoul...stupid kids. Stupid, foolish kids.”

* * *

 

“Wake up, Eren.” A voice snapped the brunet out off his thoughts as Jean, standing adjacent to him, knocked on the door of the house. Eren knew he was right; he needed to focus on what they were doing right now, as the fact that they were more than likely about to jump headfirst into a fight with another ghoul, possibly more than one, was more pressing of a matter than the fact that two more squads of low-ranking Ghoul Investigators had been taken out last night. The death total had now reached six and, like Thomas, they hadn't been eaten. Just killed. 

The efforts to find any trace of the Fox Ghoul has been heightened by the first-class Investigators and so more of the smaller jobs had been pawned off onto him, Jean, and other agents of their ranking. That's how the two of them had ended up tossed straight into a confrontation with a pair of ghouls that one of the squads had been watching for weeks. All the evidence was in place – eyewitness reports, DNA samples, and an Rc counts well within the range that made them both ghouls. All that was left was to actually take action against them, which was the hardest part of any investigation.

“I don't need you spacing out while you're about to get nailed by a ghoul,” Jean continued when Eren didn't answer him.

Eren smirked as Jean tried knocking on the door again. “I didn't think you cared about me so much, Jeanbo.”

“I care about you covering my ass more than I care about you, so don't get the wrong idea.”

“I love you too.”

Jean sighed, but this time it was due to the lack of a response he was getting rather than Eren's snide comments. “Mr. and Mrs. Wood,” Jean said loudly, projecting his voice though the solid door to their house, “this is Jean Kirstein and Eren Jaeger of the CCG. We would like to have a word with both of you.” After several moments of silence, he spoke again, his voice grew far more aggressive. “You two are both wanted for activity related to that of ghouls. If you do not open this door, we have authority to forcibly enter.” When they got no response, Eren and Jean both unfolded their quinques and stood back as Eren gave the door a strong swing with his axe, that almost cleaved the structure in half.

The two Investigators found themselves standing in a family room, one that could have easily fit into any normal human's home, with a television and sofa and chairs and end tables – it was the picturesque example of tranquility.

And that meant that danger was lurking somewhere in the house with them.

A flash of movement drew Eren's attention to a landing leading to a hallway at the top of a staircase. Tensing his hands on his weapons, he moved to follow the shape, but was abruptly stopped when a body collided with his, knocking him out flat on the ground. Before he could react, Eren found himself staring directly into a pair of soulless crimson irises, a white blade pressed to his throat and his quinque sliding across the floor away from him.

Before the ghoul could do anything, he was forced off of Eren by the presence of Jean's scythe. The ghoul was fast to climb off him, but slow to parry Jean's attack with his own tail. His movements were unsure and sluggish, which was a sign that either the ghoul was very hungry, or unaccustomed to fighting.

“I’ll take care of this one,” Jean muttered to Eren as his partner stood up. “You go find the female.” Eren's eyes immediately focused on the staircase he had previously tried to climb, as he was certain that the shape he'd seen earlier had been this ghoul's “wife”. With Jean keeping the other ghoul busy, Eren was able to slip past the two of them without much trouble; the ghoul briefly lunged at Eren when he saw where he was going, but Jean was quick to keep him away from Eren with the persuasion of a very large quinque.

Whoever was up here, he definitely didn't want either of them going near, and Eren wasn't entirely sure how he felt about that. The staircase itself was very thin and left no places for a ghoul to conceal herself, so it wasn't until he reached the top that Eren became more cautious. The stairs opened to a hallway with only two rooms – one to his immediate left, and the other at the end of the corridor. He quickly glanced into the first room, but found it to be empty besides a bed and a few decorations.

Eren slowly made his way to last room in the narrow hallway, hyper-aware of his surrounding, watching every possible angles for any sort of sneak attack in the confined area, but eventually made it without incident. The ghoul he was looking for was standing against a far wall in the room, in front of what looked like a crib, her ukaku kagune released but not poised. Tears dyed blood red by her kakugan silently flowed down her cheeks as she cradled something against her chest, and it took Eren two seconds to work out that the small bundle of blankets was in fact a baby. A very young, very helpless baby ghoul. Eren tried to ignore the knot forming in his throat as he stepped into the room. He had definitely never seen a ghoul that young, and wasn't looking forward to having to deal with that.

The mother ghoul followed his movements, backing up from him as he inched closer to her and the infant. The tears in her eyes were drying, the expression on her face quickly shifted from one of sadness to one of fear – an emotion Eren had never seen a ghoul display toward him before.

With a sigh, Eren brandished his quinque toward the two of them. “Don't make this harder on yourself,” he told the mother, looking her dead in the eyes. “I can make this quick and completely painless, but that is entirely up to you.”

“So, we both know how this is going to end,” she murmured, gently running her fingers over the child's mop of hair. “You have a job to do, and I'm just a ghoul, and a weak one at that. I don't fight, I don't even hunt, but you're not interested in hearing that, are you? You're interested in killing me for nothing other than the fact that I am in fact a ghoul.” The ghoul's wings shifted ever so slightly and Eren could feel his hands tense on his quinque as he glared at the creature through narrowed eyes.

“Tell me, Investigator,” she said, not looking at him, “how deep does your hatred of my people run, that you would make a career out of killing us, that you would collect money for destroying our lives and splitting up families?”

“That's really rich coming from a ghoul,” Eren snapped back. “Considering that your entire species exists for no purpose but to devour helpless human beings, I don't think you have much room to be bitching to me about killing.” The ghoul finally looked at him again. “The CCG exists to protect people from you monsters,” he continued. “You're all monsters. All of you. You contribute nothing to this world besides suffering for your own selfish desires.”

The look in the female ghoul's eyes shifted to one that was annoyingly piteous. “What did a ghoul do to hurt you?” she asked him. “Have you lost someone very important to you to my kind? Something has planted this seed of hatred in your heart.”

Eren straightened up, quinque tight in his hands, ignoring the ghoul's words – her fake kindness was just a mind game, a play on words to convince him to let her walk away. Ghouls were notorious for this, for mimicking human emotions to invoke sympathy in the humans around them that would ultimately become their prey. They weren't actually capable of the most trivial emotions. It was all just part of their ruse, one that his father had trained him for years to look past.

“Shut up!” he barked, moving closer to her still.

Rather than retreat closer to the wall, she backed up nearer to the baby's crib. “Tell me one last thing,” she murmured, her voice hardly above a whisper as her eyes shifted to the figure still wrapped in her arms, “would you kill a creature a helpless as he is? Surely you must be aware that a ghoul's kagune isn't even fully developed until they are around fourteen years old? A baby ghoul is as helpless as a baby human. Could you bring yourself to take a life like that?” She looked up at Eren again. “You just told me yourself that we are all monsters. This baby is a monster in the making by your definition, is he not?”

Eren looked at the ghoul, his expression harsh as he put the infant back in his crib. Though at the same time, he couldn't really argue the truth in the ukaku's words, as much as he resented her for stating them. That was an unfortunate fact about ghouls, that young ones were completely helpless without their parents to feed them, as they possessed no ability whatsoever to hunt people themselves without their kagunes. A young ghoul could have never harmed anyone, but they all grew up the same – into ruthless predators. Still, the question the ghoul had asked him was relevant.

Could he bring himself to kill a baby, knowing that there was no way that creature could had harmed anyone? It was a ghoul, but it was also a baby. A baby that would grow up into something that would kill hundreds of humans over the course of his life. Innocent in youth, but heartless in adulthood. He'd be saving so many lives, but at what cost? The cost of eliminating a life that had never done a damn thing to harm anymore?

“Eren!” The brunet suddenly looked up as Jean came rushing down the hallway, taking a stance beside his partner as he poised his quinque into an attacking position. The ghoul looked at Jean for a few seconds before a tired sigh passed her lips and her kagune vanished, her eyes taking on their natural shade of brown.

“I'm not going to fight either of you. I'm not a killer.”

That got a scornful snot from Jean. “Whatever you say, monster.” Eren looked away as Jean approached the ghoul with his quinque. A second of silence accompanied his footsteps, before there was a scream of pain, and silence filled the room once more. Eren tried not to cringe at the sound. It was a noise he'd heard so many times before, but it seemed so much worse coming from a ghoul as docile as that one had acted. With a sigh, he put his quinque away and looked down at the baby as he approached the crib where the baby was laying.

Eren tried to swallowed a lump in his throat when the baby looked up at him, his soft brown eyes identical to the kind eyes of the ghoul that Jean had just killed. The baby wasn't quite smiling, but he didn't look too upset either.

“What do we got there, Eren?” Jean asked as he joined Eren at the side of the crib. When his eyes too rested on the infant, Jean grimaced. “Don't think about it,” he said. “We have a job to do.”

“Don't think about it?” Eren echoed, finally looking Jean in the face and tearing his eyes from the tiny ghoul. “Look at him. He's a baby.”

“He's a ghoul,” was Jean's response. He said it in a curt voice, like it was simplest answer one could have possibly come up with.

“I'm aware that he's a ghoul,” Eren snapped back. “The issue is his age.”

“There's no issue,” Jean replied. “He's a ghoul. A ghoul is a ghoul. He will grow up into a predator. If we take care of him now, it will save hundreds of lives later.”

“What about the prison?” Eren finally asked. “We could just arrest him.”

Jean raised his eyes at the brunet. “Eren, the only reason that anyone would arrest a ghoul is because there's something to gain by keeping it alive, be that for research or questioning or quinque supplies. They will have no use for a baby whatsoever, and they're sure as hell aren't going to wait fourteen years for for his kagune to grow out.”

Eren gritted his teeth together, knowing the truth in his friend's words, but he was having a hard time accepting the gravity of what Jean was suggesting they do. He wanted no part of this whatsoever. He wasn't going to kill a baby; he found himself not giving half a fuck if he was a ghoul or not. It suddenly didn't matter to him. He had joined the CCG to protect innocent lives, and a baby, ghoul or not, was one of the most innocent lives in existence.

“You go ahead,” Eren muttered. “I will have no part in killing that infant.” He brushed past Jean toward the door, lingering only by one last comment:

“I don't know what that female said to you,” Jean warned him, “but you can't let her get under your skin. Whatever emotion you saw her show were just a show. Remember that.”

Eren gave him a curt nod, but he found himself not believing Jean's words. What he had seen was a ghoul showing legitimate feelings toward not only another ghoul, but him as well, and that concerned him gravely.

* * *

 

Although Mikasa wouldn't really call them “friends”, spending the duller parts of her long days at college listening to Hitch talk about things that didn't really seem to interest anyone besides Hitch and whoever her designated boyfriend of the month was did seem to pass the time Mikasa had between classes. Slightly. At the moment, Hitch and Marlow had dragged her and a group of other girls Mikasa wasn't very well acquainted with to one of the food courts on the campus grounds. They were all talking about something that Mikasa was only half-listening to, when something else caught her attention.“Is there something out there targeting the Ghoul Investigators of Shiganshina?”Mikasa looked up from her bored stupor in mild interest as those words rang out from a television on a wall adjacent to where she was sitting. The TV was showing an image of one of the local news reporters and any further words she was saying was quickly drowned out by the mindless background chatter of the dining area filled with hungry college students, but Mikasa's eyes carefully followed the captions scrolling along the bottom of the screen.

“Although Shiganshina isn't without it's fair share of incidents involving ghouls,” the text read, “the job of destroying them has seem to have become drastically more dangerous for Investigators over the last week. The deaths of six entry-level Ghoul Investigators has been confirmed by the Commission of Counter Ghoul since last Friday, and they all seemed to be linked in the same way.” Mikasa tried to swallow a knot that rapidly forming in her throat as she continued to read the captions.

“Details involving the nature of the killings are unclear at this time, but they have been confirmed to be performed by a ghoul, and no feeding has appeared to take place on any of the corpses. The CCG was unable to be reached for comment at the time, but it probably goes without saying that any Ghoul Investigator should be on high alert until more information is released involving this latest string of homicides.” As the newscast faded into something far less interesting, Mikasa tried to bite back a frustrated sigh.

“Something got you a little bent out of shape, Mikasa?” Hitch asked with a smirk, which earned her a glare from the Asian girl.

“I'll talk to you later, Hitch. I have something I need to take care of.” If Hitch had any protest to Mikasa's abrasive dismissal, Mikasa didn't hear it, nor did she even care that much. She already had her phone in hand and Eren's contact picture pulled up by the time she made it to the hallway. For several moments, the phone just rang. “Come on, Eren,” she sighed, and was about to give up on the seventh ring, when she finally heard a small click and his voice fill her ear.

“Hey,” he said “what's up?”

Mikasa was silent for a few seconds, trying to keep herself somewhat collected. “When are you coming home tonight?” she asked.

“Oh,” Eren replied. She could tell from his tone of voice that he was somewhat caught off guard by the question. “I dunno exactly, to be honest. It could be later.”

“How late are we talking?” She tried to keep her voice steady, fearful that if she didn't, the nerves swelling in her gut would overflow.

Eren hesitated for a few seconds. “Well, Mika, they're kinda underhanded tonight. There's been an inci-”

“Yes, I know. A ghoul has been targeting Ghoul Investigators,” Mikasa said, her tone shaking. “But-”

“They need help, Mikasa,” Eren sighed. “The sooner they find who this is, the safer it'll be for everyone involved.”

“I just saw a news report of it.” Mikasa was aware of her own voice losing its nearly perpetual composure, but she also found herself not caring at this point. “They said that the CCG couldn't be reached for comment. I know that what means.” Her hands were shaking. “It means they have no idea who it is, no leads, and so they're making those of you who remain work harder so they hopefully come up with a vague idea of what's going on.”

Silence.

“Where did you hear that?” Eren finally sighed.

“It's common sense, Eren,” Mikasa snapped, aggression very evident in her voice. “This has become incredibly more dangerous, and you know it.”

“I'm fine,” he murmured gently, trying to calm her down. “I'm here right now, aren't I? I'm talking to you.”

“You know,” Mikasa said back, her tone soft, “you say that, but I know it's not true. You think you're fine, but you're not. You never are.” Mikasa was subconsciously aware of tears sliding down her face. “All it takes is one mistake, one instance of overestimating yourself, and that's it.”

“Mikas-” he started to say, but she cut him off.

“If that damn fox ghoul showed you anything, it was that you're helpless against a ghoul without a quinque. All a ghoul has to do is disarm you, and there you go. That's it. You're just a human, Eren.” Her voice faded to a whisper. “You're a human trying to fight something that-”

“I have a job to do,” Eren interrupted her, his voice curt and Mikasa could tell that she had finally chipped away at the last of his patience. “I'm busy, and you have better shit to be doing than telling me something you've told me one-hundred times before.”

“If you would listen to me, it wouldn’t be an issue,” she snapped back, tears still falling freely, though now they were more frustrated than they were upset.

There was a tense silence for a second.

“If you're done, I have to get going,” Eren muttered. “I'll see you when I get home.”

“Whenever the hell that is, right?” Mikasa bristled back and the line went dead. The second the call ended, however, Mikasa's anger was almost instantly replaced with an anxious type of frustration. She knew that Eren would never stop what he did, as he not only enjoyed it, but it also filled him with a sense of pride, a sense of selflessness, and he was aware that what he did was dangerous but also something he did for the sake of other people.

Mikasa knew all of this and she couldn't resent him for that, but it didn't do a whole lot to curb the worry she felt every single day when he stepped out the door to their apartment, or the incredible relief she felt when he came home every night unharmed. They would both be calmer when his shift was over, but he had to live that long first. Stifling a sigh, Mikasa reached deep into the backpack that was slung over her shoulder until her finders came into contact with a hard, cool object laying at the very bottom.

It was going to be a long night for both of them.

 


	5. Seeds of Doubt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: In the words of an old friend of mine, "I fucked up". I need a human character to use in Annie's backstory coming up soon and since I have roles for literally almost every character I can remember from SNK outlined for this fic, Mina Carolina is no longer a dead Ghoul Investigator. I've went back and edited it, but this is for anyone that's been reading when this first chapter went up: it isn't a plot hole when it comes up in a few chapters, it's an intentional change I made.

Jean was probably going to kill him when he finally got off this phone, but it would be worth it. The taller blond man was glaring at Eren like he wanted to throttle his neck, teeth gritted as he hissed in exasperation to the person on the other end of the phone.

"No, I told you I was busy tonight and wasn't going to be home until late." Silence as he listened to the reply, then a sigh. "Eleven at night is not what I meant by late, I was thinking more like three this morning ... I'm twenty-one years old, Mom. I don't have to explain to you where I'm at, at every second of the day."

Eren snorted. "She just loves you, Jeanbo."

Jean's glare hardened at Eren. "I'm not getting defensive," he snapped back at his mother, "you're just fucking annoying me ... Yes, I'm working, and if you don't mind, I'd like to get back-" Jean muttered something that sounded a lot like 'for fuck's sake' as his mother cut him off. "No, I'm not alone-" An exasperated sigh left his lips as she cut him off again. "Does that really matter?" he muttered. "...Eren is here."

A wide grin spread across the brunet's face and Jean gave him a glare that would have struck him down dead if looks were capable of killing people. Eren ignored the nonverbal warning and stepped up next to Jean, only a few inches from the cellphone.

"It's okay, Mrs. Kirstein, your son is safe in my loving arms," he said loudly enough that there was no way that the older woman didn't hear him, and Jean pulled away, flipping him off.

"Don't scream in my ear, jackass," he hissed at Eren, who just smirked at him. "Mom, I'll call you back, alright?" Jean said, increasing his voice volume in a clear attempt to speak over her. "I promise I'll call you tonight when I get home." He grunted in acknowledgment to something she said. "Yeah, yeah, I love you, too." After Jean tapped his phone to end the call, he looked toward Eren again. "I swear to god, I'm going to bury you alive one of these days, Jaeger."

"But if you bury me alive, who is going to protect you from the googlies that go bump in the night, Jeanbo?"

"You're going the one that's going to need protection in about five seconds!"

Eren was about to answer him, when he suddenly noticed something out of the corner of his eye: a flash of white and red. As fast as he could, Eren turned his body just in time to see a white head of hair dropping down from the building and into an alleyway off to the side.

"Come on!" he quickly hissed at Jean, brushing past him. His partner looked bewildered for a moment, but seemed to recognize the urgency in Eren's tone and followed him without arguing.

"Did you see something?" he called after Eren. The two of them came to a stop at the entrance to the lane Eren had seen the ghoul drop into.

"I think it's the Fox Ghoul," he muttered. "I saw it drop off of a building into this alley here. Get ready." Eren and Jean stopped when they turned the corner and saw a lone figure standing in the middle of the alley, it's back to the two Investigators. Eren could all too clearly see the white wig that the Fox ghoul was wearing the first night he had encountered it. It's back was turned to them, mask in hand.

Eren's hands tightened on his quinque, as the ghoul tensed up upon hearing the pursuers, and very quickly placed the mask back on before, somewhat to their surprise, turning to face the two of them as the Fox's unmistakable kagune emerged, and this time, Eren got a very good look at it. It was as he had previously noticed - the wings emerging from the shoulders were large and broad, at least as long as the ghoul was tall. They had a whispy, airy texture to them, starting out black at the base, and gradually becoming a maroon red the further they spread out, the colors intertwining as if the kagune was made of gas. The tail was white and solid, ran through with random thick lines of red. It was one appendage, attached together into one base at the ghoul's tailbone, but as the tail branched out, it broke off into three smaller tails that were carefully wrapping their way around the ghoul's body.

The kagune seemed even more imposing now that Eren knew exactly how many lives the Fox ghoul had taken with the powerful weapon. The brunet's angry green eyes met the emotionless back eyes of the ghoul's kakugan as he and Jean branched out, moving into the formation they had used to take out dozens of ghouls before this one. The only difference with this one would be that they'd be capturing it instead of killing it, as the laboratory had requested that this particular ghoul be captured alive if at all possible. They wanted to use it for research, to learn more about the kagune.

"Watch it," Eren said to Jean, standing a few feet away. "This thing is a fast one." Even as he said it, Eren kept his eyes locked carefully on the ghoul, preparing at any second for a strike as savage as the one it had used to take out the binge eater. However, the ghoul stood completely still - it didn't shift the direction it was standing even as Eren and Jean stood on diagonal opposite angles from the ghoul. The only movement that came from the masked figure was it's bikaku tail, as the three appendages that formed the kagune melted together to form one larger, bulkier tail that the Fox held directly behind itself, it's head slowly following Eren's movements.

Very quickly, Eren found himself being somewhat impressed with the intelligence this particular ghoul seemed to be showing. Well, as impressed as he could be while still being well aware of the horrible things that ghoul had done to many of his friends and comrades. Sometimes, as Eren had Jean had learned, merely outnumbering a ghoul wasn't enough. They had very carefully developed their own strategy of fighting when it came to ghouls, that involved attempting to lure the creature into a position where all of it's focus was on one of them, while the other one caught it off guard. The Fox was rejecting all of that, as it stood still, refusing to allow either of them to gain all of its attention at once.

In the case of a bikaku ghoul, which was just as offensively powerful as it was capable of defending itself, there was no easy or clear way to deal with that. It could make them very tricky to fully counter, and the Fox was just living up to the reputation it had gained. It was refusing to fall into their trap, while at the same time conserving the energy it would be wasting if it was using the ukaku half of the kagune. Clearly, the Fox ghoul favored use of the tail over the wings, which was intelligent, but that just made trying to exploit the crippling weakness of the ukaku ghoul that much harder.

Eren made contact with Jean's expression for a moment, and his partner seemed just as put off as he was. The ghoul wasn't doing anything. It wasn't fighting back, it wasn't defending. Hell, it wasn't even attempting to flee. It was just standing there, watching Eren like a hawk. Finally fed up with the stalemate, Eren saw Jean move to attack the ghoul, diving toward the head with the blunt side of his scythe in an attempt to incapacitate it. Without even looking up from the unwavering stare it had Eren locked in, the Fox raised its tail to expertly parry the blow Jean had tried to deal. Instead of merely blocking the attack, the ghoul moved the kagune so that the sharp end of the scythe was deeply embedded into the appendage. The ghoul slightly hissed in pain, but otherwise didn't react to the self-inflicted blow.

Pivoting on a dime, the ghoul turned it's entire body to face Jean and yanked the kagune toward the opening of the alleyway. The sudden motion ripped the quinque from Jean's hands and, in mid-swing, the ghoul separated the tail once more, freeing the kagune from the scythe and sending Jean's weapon flying well out of the reach of the two Investigators. Despite the fact that Eren had seen the speed this particular ghoul was capable of before, he still found himself reacting far too slowly to hit the Fox with his own attack. Even as he raised his blade to swing, the agile ghoul leaped back from him, using the wings for a small burst of speed and landing right beside the quinque it had previously discarded. The three tails ran together once more and with a mighty blow, the Fox brought the kagune down against the weaker handle of the quinque, disintegrating it with one strike.

Even as Eren moved to defend his now-defenseless partner from any attacks from the ghoul, Eren couldn't help but feel highly unsure of his own abilities. The sheer, raw power that ghoul had just displayed by halving a quinque was alarming, to say the very least. They were made of a special steel that was supposed to be resistant to a ghoul's kagune, therefore making them harder to destroy, but that didn't seem to mean a damn thing to the Fox.

"What the hell are you?" he muttered, his voice audible only to himself. The response he got from his enemy was silence, as the ghoul went back to watching him. Eren gritted his teeth, his eyes narrowed as he dived at the ghoul with a swing from his ax. His blow hit nothing but empty air and pavement, as the creature jumped upward, easily dodging his attack. It put him in a position where he was more than vulnerable to any level of attack from the ghoul - anything from crystals fired from the wing, to a devastating slash from the tail. Eren braced himself for pain, though to his surprised, no attack came from the Fox. The ghoul landed lightly on a nearby awning, looking down at him until he had recovered from the momentum of his swing and had his weapon poised again.

The white-and-red masked face suddenly looked to Jean, who was still standing off to the side, watching the rest of the fight play out helplessly. The Fox ghoul then moved its wings, and Eren felt his heart sink into his stomach as the kagune seemed to grow crystals - the sure sign that an ukaku was preparing to fire projectiles. Before he knew what he was doing, Eren tossed his quinque to the ground, dashing toward Jean before those deadly crystals hit their mark. He tackled into the blond, sending them both to the ground, but when Eren looked up, he saw that no crystals had been fired from the wings. With his brow furrowed in dread, the brunet then looked up to where the ghoul had been seconds before, finding the space empty.

It had vanished.

* * *

That ghoul had faked him out. Somehow, that damn thing had known that if it pretended to attack Jean, Eren would move to save him, and it had used that moment to slip away. Eren found this disturbing. Not in a way that he was surprised by the ghoul's intelligence, as it had already shown the CCG just how formidable of a foe this ghoul truly was many times in the past, but because Eren had no concept of how this creature could have possibly known how he would react to defending Jean. Then there was also the fact that even without looking at Jean, the ghoul knew exactly how they would attack it, even going so far as to evade their strategy. It was almost as if this ghoul had been watching them for quite a while, and that thought was more than a little unsettling.

When Eren finally arrived on the doorstep to his apartment, all he could feel was exhaustion both physically and emotionally. It had been a very long day for the young Investigator, starting out with that situation involving the ghoul infant, and then encountering and being spared by the Fox ghoul for a second time. He was confused, but found his mind too cluttered from the unexpected fight to make any semblance of sense of it, and was looking forward to falling onto his bed and dying. He fumbled for his key, but when he slid it into the lock, he found the door unexpectedly open.

Frowning, Eren stepped into the small home. The lights in the kitchen were on, and Mikasa was sitting at the wooden table, her head resting on her arms as she was dozing. Had she stayed up for him? A pang of guilt hit Eren right in the gut as the argument they had earlier was suddenly very prominent in his memory. Mikasa just worried about him, and he hated that he so often let himself forget that when he snapped at her. The doting was annoying, but she only did it because she loved him very deeply.

Suppressing a sigh, he approached Mikasa and gently shook her shoulders. "Hey," he said to her softly. "Mik, let's go to bed." She looked up at him for a second, grey eyes groggy before she became more alert and a yawn passed her lips. She took Eren's outstretched hand and he pulled her up to her feet, their fingers intertwining as Eren led her back to the room they shared. "Did you stay up for me all night?" Eren asked her when the door to their room was closed.

"Sort of," she admitted, slipping her clothes off and reaching for one of the nightgowns that was in the dresser she had approached. "Something came up for me as well, and I didn't get home until later and since you weren't home yet, I decided to wait until you got home to go to bed."

"You didn't have to do that."

Mikasa smiled. "I know, but I wanted to." She settled down on the end of the bed with him, as he stared down at the ground. "Eren." When he turned to finally look at Mikasa, her brows were knitted in concern. "Are you alright?"

He hesitated for a moment. "I just had a very long day at work."

"What happened?"

Eren shook his head. "It's not a big deal, Mikasa. Don't worry about it."

"It is a big deal if it's bothering you, Eren. I don't want you to-"

"If I say anything, it's just going to upset you."

Mikasa reached over to place her hand on Eren's cheek, gently turning his head to face her. She leaned toward him until their lips met for several seconds, before she pulled back, her forehead still press against his.

"Eren," she breathed, her eyes locking with the beautiful ocean green orbs that she had been transfixed by, fallen in love with all those years ago, "I want you to know that you can tell me anything. I promise I won't get upset. I just want to make sure that you're okay, and that you know you can trust me to never judge you."

Eren sighed, but managed to give her a small smile. "Alright. Today, me and Jean were assigned to finish up a case that was left behind by two Investigators that were killed by whatever ghoul is doing all this." Mikasa was silent, her face reserved as she allowed Eren to finish. "They were pretty weak ghouls, and neither of them put much of a fight, but then..." his voice trailed off.

"But then?" Mikasa probed softly.

Eren closed his eyes, not wanting to recall the memory of what happened earlier that day. "But then they had a baby." For a moment, silence fell between them, as Mikasa processed what exactly Eren had told her. The brunet thought for a second that he saw a ghost of a wince on her face, but it disappeared so quickly that he couldn't be sure.

"What did you do?" Mikasa finally asked and despite the fact that he knew Mikasa wouldn't resent him for whatever role he might have played in the death of an infant, Eren couldn't help but notice a lot of disbelief in her tone.

"I didn't do a damn thing," Eren snapped, a bit defensive. "Jean killed him, but I couldn't. I didn't want to have anything to do with killing a fucking baby." Mikasa didn't say anything; she just sat on the end of the bed staring at him with her wide grey eyes. "The thing that really got to me was how the mother reacted," Eren continued. "She was kind, even though she knew that we were there to kill her entire family. She never fought back or threatened me at any point, not even when Jean pulled his quinque on her." Eren sighed, scratching the back of his head. "I don't know, Mika, I just feel like killing those two was the wrong thing to do, but I know I shouldn't be thinking like that. They were still ghouls. They were still killers. But they just seemed so innocent, so kind..." His voice trailed off. "It's like I'm starting to second-guess everything I've ever known about them."

"Maybe," Mikasa finally murmured, "what you thought about them was wrong." Mikasa was staring at the bed in front of her, avoiding the look Eren just threw her way. "What you see is the negative aspect of ghouls, since that's your job, what you're exposed to every single day. Maybe there's a side to them that people don't fully understand." She finally met Eren's eyes. "If all you see is the bad, the good is bound to get swept to the side, right? Maybe you need to look at it from the point of view of a ghoul rather than a person."

"I can't," he replied almost immediately. A grimace twisted his face. "I don't understand how a creature that looks and can act just like a person can look a human being in the eyes and kill them. And that is something all ghouls do, regardless of how they act. It's an entire species that exists through murdering people. Sometimes they don't even eat the people they murder." Bitterness began to seep into his tone.

"Eren-" Mikasa started, as she knew exactly where the conversation was going, but Eren cut her off.

"That's what they did to my mother. They killed her, ate however the hell much they felt like eating, and left the rest of her in an alley to rot. They didn't care about who she was, or the life she had planned, or the family she had waiting for her to come home that night." Now tears were trailing down his face, and Mikasa grabbed one of his hands, squeezing it gently. "Every time I hear about a victim of these monsters, one that I could have prevented, that's all I can think about. Did that person have a future? Did that person have a family? Did that person have a life? Ghouls don't ask those questions of their victims, so why should I ask them of the ghouls I kill?"

Mikasa silently slid closer to him on the bed, at a loss for words as she cuddled up against him, her arm wrapped firmly around his waist, her head on his shoulder.

Eren ran his fingers through her raven hair. "I can't see it from the point of view of a ghoul when they won't do the same for people." Silence fell between the two of them, until Eren finally broke it with a sigh. "Let's just go to bed.

Mikasa didn't protest and as Eren settled in under the covers in the bed beside her, he felt her nuzzle up against him like she always did, her face pressed gently into the base of his neck. Eren wrapped his arms around her torso, pressing the rest of her body against his chest. A smile turned his lips upward as he placed a single kiss on her forehead, before closing his eyes and attempting to drift off to sleep.

* * *

 

Hannes and Grisha both tried their hardest to keep their composure as they both started down at the corpses of another pair of young entry-level Ghoul Investigators. They had been briefed on what they were walking into before they left - they knew exactly what they were to expect, but that didn't make it any easier. They were the two most experienced first-class Investigators on the force in Shiganshina; it went without saying that they'd be the ones to take on a case that involved ghouls directly targeting Ghoul Investigators. Yet with every new corpse, killed and left uneaten, with every new death, their sense of failure just seemed to grow. These people needed them, they depended on them, and so far, they were just failing spectacularly.

The death toll was now at eight - four teams of two had been totally eradicated, none of them eaten, all of them killed with either a slashed neck, or the crystals of an ukaku. It was all pointing at that damn Fox Ghoul, the ghoul that nobody had seen a trace of since Eren had first reported it.

"How the hell does a Ghoul just fall off the face of the earth like this?" Grisha muttered in frustration as Hannes bent down beside one of the corpses, looking at the crystal protruding from the body.

"You know how they are," he replied. "Intelligent ghouls are elusive. Give it time - we'll find the Fox."

"We don't have time," Grisha sighed. "At this rate. the entire damn force will be wiped out before we can even identify the gender of this ghoul, much less capture it."

"God, you're a pessimist," Hannes replied with a smirk.

Grisha raised an eyebrow at him. "I'm not a pessimist, I'm just realistic."

"You can be realistic without spreading dread over the ground you walk upon. Grisha, I love you, you're like a brother to me, but you suffer greatly from that little stormcloud flying above your head." With a sigh, Hannes stood upright. "Still, you're not wrong. Let's get these poor bastards cleaned up." As the two Investigators did the grim job of carefully moving the bodies of their former comrades into bags and putting them into the back of the truck they had brought, Grisha stepped into the driver's seat.

"I'll take this back to headquarters and let them take care of the rest. Are you gonna head home for the night?"

Hannes nodded. "Yeah, if you don't need any more help?"

Grisha waved him hand dismissively. "I'll be fine. See you tomorrow."

As the car drove off, the blond heard a dull thump behind him and turned around on a time, only to see a figure standing mere feet from him. It was a short man, with short jet black hair and icy blue eyes so piercing that even the first-class Investigator couldn't help but shudder internally. He straighted himself up, looking sternly at the short man.

"Sir, this is a crime scene. I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to move along. Your presence is interfering with CCG business."

As he was speaking, the man didn't budge. "So, you're with the CCG?" he finally grunted, his voice low and gruff.

Hannes glared at him. "That is no concern of yours, citizen."

"I'll take that as a 'yes'," he replied, ignoring Hannes' earlier demand that he leave. "I don't give a damn about whatever ghoul you're looking for. None of that concerns me in the slightest." His voice was bored. "I'm looking for someone, too, and if you can give me a good, answer, I'll be on my way. Do you know anything about a ghoul that was killed about a week ago? A rinkaku user, probably built quite a reputation for himself before one of your agents killed him."

Hannes narrowed his eyes at the man. "What did you want to know about him?"

"I'm just looking for the Investigator that killed him." A tense silence fell between the two men, as neither of them budged or even spoke. "Did you do it?" he finally asked, raising an eyebrow at the Investigator.

Hannes shook his head, still staring at the man harshly. "No, but I might know who did."

"Would you mind telling me, in that case?" the shorter man grumbled.

"That's not information I am obligated to give out."

"Then we're done here, aren't we?" the man asked. As he moved away, Hannes brought his fingers down on the clasp on the briefcase in his right hand, tensing his arm as his quinque as emerged. The weapon was a large, flat , flexible silver blade with jagged edges, at one point being the kagune of a bikaku ghoul. As the blade formed, he held it in front of the man, cutting off the path he was going to take.

"Sir," he prompted coldly, "could I bother you into submitting to a blood test? I'd be highly interested in seeing what exactly your Rc cell count is, because right now, you're giving off awfully ghoulish vibes. Call it a hunch from a seasoned Investigator."

The man sighed. "You could have just asked." He turned his body to face Hannes, his expression looking more mildly irritated than anything else. "Yes, I'm a ghoul. And I''m not one you want to engage, trust me." The blond's response was to twist the handle of the quinque he was holding, sending the tip of the flexible blade directly at the ghoul. The ghoul made a sound that was very similar to an annoyed groan, before he jumped back, dodging the quinque with ease as his kagune emerged. For a brief second, Hannes felt his eyes widen at the presence of this ghoul's kagune. An enormous pair of wings erupted form the ghoul's shoulderblades, black as the night and at least double the length of his body. They resembled the wings of bats, solid at the base and around the edges of the wings, but misty and gas-like on the middle, giving it a look he had never seen on an ukaku ghoul before. At the same time, four red and black tentacles came from the ghoul's midback, wrapping their way around his body to poise toward the Investigator. No sooner had this dual kagune emerged that the rest of the ghoul was being engulfed by a black mass that spread throughout his body, finally hardening and growing spikes on the extremities, taking the form of a full-body armor. The only trace of color on the ghoul's body was the crimson red of his eyes and his rinkaku as he slowly walked toward the Investigator, wings silhouetted against the moonlight behind him.

Three. Three goddamned kagunes. Hannes tried to fight off the apprehension he felt, as something like this was unprecedented. Hell, even the two kagunes that the Fox had was something they had never heard of before, but this was far, far worse. Trying to fight the feeling of dread he felt clawing at his chest, Hannes lashed out at the ghoul with quinque. The ghoul made absolutely no attempt to block the attacks as he kept closing the distance between them. The blade bounced off the ghoul's armor again and again, not even leaving a scratch.

Hannes found himself slowly retreating, as he lashed out the ghoul in a frenzy, landing pointless blow after pointless blow, until he was finally backed up against a building with nowhere else to go. The ghoul held out one of his tentacles and the end of it dulled, forming a shape similar to a hand that grabbed Hannes by the neck and lifted him up, pinning him against the building several inches off the ground. As he held the man, the three other tentacles worked together to strike the handle of the quinque in unison, destroying it instantly.

The ghoul watched him, expression bored as he kicked and spluttered again the wall. "I'll ask you one more time," he muttered in annoyance.

"Burn in hell!" the blond man spat at the ghoul, who just continued to stare at him.

"I'm in no hurry to go anywhere, Dove," the ghoul replied, tightening the pressure he was applying to the man's neck. Hannes grasped at the tentacle at his neck, trying in vain to break free of the choking hold it had on his throat. The Investigator finally adverted his gaze to the ground, chest heaving as he still tried to breathe, spit forming at the corners of his mouth. Still, he didn't say anything.

The ghoul made a "tch" sound.

"You're pretty resilient, I'll give you that." The dark-haired ghoul lifted one his tentacles one from it's position by his hip, watching it nonchalantly as he held it up to eye level. "I'm curious, what is your experience with a rinkaku? I've heard stories of ghouls being able to split them like roots once they're inside of a body. Some say that you can literally tear apart a human's insides." Hannes looked at the ghoul again. "I can't imagine that would feel very pleasant, would it? I'd even bet it would hurt quite a bit." The ghoul made eye contact with him again. "I've never tried it, but would be a learning experience for both of us, wouldn't it?" He held one of the tentacles up against Hannes chest. "What is the name of the Investigator that killed the ghoul I mentioned? I'm not going to ask you again. If you don't want me to slowly rip you apart from the inside out, I suggest you answer this one simple question."

The man finally caved.

"Eren!" he managed to choke out. "Eren Jaeger."

"That wasn't so hard now, was it?" The ghoul asked, releasing the man's neck. Hannes had no sooner slumped to the ground that one of the tentacles pieced his throat, running all the way through and killing him almost instantly. "Pathetic," he muttered, ripping the kagune out of the man's corpse and spraying blood all over the ground. "How quickly your kind will sell out your comrades and friends just to save your own skin. You deserve to die, just for being a damn coward."

The ghoul stepped away from the scene of death, withdrawing his kagune as he walked. At least they had a name now - this stupid mission was over for him. He'd give the name of the unlucky bastard to Reiner and Bertholdt and leave them to deal with it, and after that it would be their headache. He had killed enough CCG agents in his life, and was looking forward to returning home and no longer being involved with the vengeful drama of a couple young adults who had no idea the damage they were doing.


	6. A Modest Proposal

As the grim ceremony came to a close, Eren noticed that his father was among the first of the crow to disperse from the newly formed grave. In a way, he understood. He could only imagine the guilt that his father was most likely feeling, even now. Hannes had apparently been alone when he was killed, as his body had been discovered early this morning. And as much as Eren and Jean fought, there was a bond a person had to have with their partner in a job like this. There was very real guilt to be felt if they were hurt, because that was part of the job of a Ghoul Investigator: to protect their partner. Grisha and Hannes had been together since Eren was just a boy, as friends and as partners. His father had remained rather stoic during the proceeding, and Eren was more than a little concerned about him.

"Dad?" he prompted, his voice soft. The darker-haired man stopped walking, but didn't turn to face his son. After several seconds, Eren sighed. "Dad, this wasn't your fault. It-"

"I know, Eren," he replied, finally facing his son. The look on his face was torn, trying to conceal the emotional turmoil he was no doubt in, but Eren knew his father well enough to be able see through it. "I know," he repeated with a sigh. "I never should have left him by himself. I suppose I just had too much confidence in his abilities." His eyes closed for a moment, as he mulled over his next words. Eren was about to say something, but he was cut off when Grisha finally spoke up again. "...no. No, I didn't overestimate Hannes. He was one of the best Investigators we had on the force. I genuinely thought he wouldn't fall to that ghoul, even if he encountered it on his own. The only mistake I made was underestimating the Fox Ghoul."

At those words, Eren couldn't help but feel torn. There had been something bugging him since last night, nagging at the back of his mind, and he hadn't been able to put his finger on what exactly was the source of that feeling, until that exact moment. It was doubt. Doubt that the Fox Ghoul was the culprit for all the murders that had been happening over the last several weeks. True, it was bizarre that the ghoul had chosen to materialize out of thin air right at the time all those killings had began, but in both instances he had encountered said ghoul, the Fox hadn't shown any sort of intention to want to harm him. The first time they met, the thing had saved his life, and last night, there were numerous moments where it could have killed both him and Jean. But it didn't. Hell, it didn't even outwardly attacked them - they had cornered the Fox all on their own. And it had only disarmed Jean, then vanished the first chance it got.

It didn't add up. It didn't make sense. Why would a ghoul that had killed numerous Ghoul Investigators in cold blood spare him not once, but twice? The Fox might have been a ghoul, and it might have been a damn enigma of a ghoul, but Eren was positive that it wasn't the ghoul they were looking for.

"I'm starting to think that the Fox isn't the ghoul doing all this killing, Dad," Eren finally sighed.

There was a moment of silence, before he finally said, "What makes you say that?"

"Me and Jean ran into the Fox again last night,' he replied, gauging his father's thought process as he said it. "And it spared me for a second time...there's something off about that ghoul, but I don't think it's the killer we're looking for."

If Grisha didn't agree with Eren's idea, he didn't show it. There was silence for a few seconds, before he finally asked him a rather random question. "Eren, have you heard of one-eyed ghouls?" He said it in a way that Eren got the vibe he had known damn well that Eren wouldn't have any clue as to what the hell a one-eyed ghoul was.

Eren shook his head.

"I expected as much," Grisha replied. "In plain terms, it's a hybrid between a human and a ghoul. They're so incredibly rare that even most ghouls view them as a legend, something impossible, a biological abomination that shouldn't be able to exist. The information we have about actual instances of them existing is so scarce that we don't even know if they're real."

Eren was silent, trying to process the very idea of that. The men and women on the force who he worked with joked about that a lot, because the concept in itself was ridiculous. Eren wasn't exactly an expert on ghoul biology, but he knew that ghouls and humans weren't capable of reproducing together. There were just too many differences in their bodies to make them compatible.

"Do you believe in them?" Eren finally asked.

Grisha was silent for a few seconds. "To a point. I don't think a one-eyed ghoul can be born, but perhaps one can be created." There was something highly unsettling in his tone of voice his father was using, but it was gone almost as soon as he brought it up. "Of course, that just leads to another question I've been pondering. I do wonder how much better off against ghouls we would be if Ghoul Investigators could use their own kagunes instead of quinques." Bittiness began to flood his tone as his eyes narrowed in frustration. "If being disarmed didn't mean certain death to a Ghoul Investigator, how would this situation we find ourselves in have played out differently? An intelligent ghoul can do truly amazing things with its kagune. Would a one-eyed ghoul be any different? Could we finally meet them on an equal playing field?"

He paused to sigh and looked at Eren. "This just my emotions talking, Eren," he added when he saw the uneasy look his son was giving him. "I'm not suggesting that we should actually try and turn people into ghouls. That's absolutely ludicrous. Though, there is one thing I want to give you." Grisha revealed something from one of his pockets, placing it in Eren's hand. It was a small black pager.

"We're going to start mandating that all Ghoul Investigators start carrying these at all times, even if you aren't on duty. If you ever encounter a ghoul that you haven't been specially assigned to kill, please, Eren, page for backup. Do you understand? Until these murders have stopped, we can't afford to lose anymore Investigators to these things." Grisha's expression softened considerably and he gently placed a hand on either of Eren's shoulders, looking the brunet directly in the face. "And I don't want to lose any more of my friends, and especially not my son. Please, put your safety before your pride, Eren."

When more people began to approach Grisha to offer their condolences, Eren took that has his que to move along. Even as he slowly moved back to the large hole in the ground where they had just began to cover the casket with earth, Eren felt uneasy. He had no idea why his thoughts automatically seemed to be shifting to Mikasa, but they were, and more specifically, all the things he hadn't done yet. He still had that ring sitting in his dresser, still not given to Mikasa the way he wanted it to be. With Hannes' death at the hands of this unseen foe, he couldn't help but feel like this was something he needed to do, like if he waited until it was too late, he'd regret it.

Pulling out his phone, he opened his contact list and pressed the picture for Mikasa. A smile graced his lips when he heard her answer.

"Hey, what do you have planned tonight?"

* * *

For half a second, Eren seriously debated bringing his quinque into the restaurant with him. He almost laughed to himself when that thought crossed his mind. How the hell would that have looked? The oh-so romantic Ghoul Investigator bringing his ultra-powerful weapon capable of cutting a ghoul in half into a crowded restaurant on the night he planned on proposing to his girlfriend. That was just the image of romance.

When the door of the car opened on the passenger side, Eren followed Mikasa's motions, biting back a sigh as he sat the quinque on his seat. They'd be fine during the forty second walk to the front of the restaurant. When she met him at the front of the car, Eren couldn't help but notice how beautiful she looked. How beautiful she always looked. What she was wearing was nothing especially fancy - just a simple red sweater and black jeans, but somehow Mikasa seemed to have this innate ability to make even the simplest of outfits look absolutely gorgeous on her.

When she noticed Eren staring at her, she gave him a quizzical look. "What?"

Eren just smiled back. "You look so pretty tonight." As a small pink flush appeared on her pale face, Eren gently wrapped his arms around her back and pulled her body against his, pressing his lips against hers for a few seconds. She leaned into his embrace for a moment, before gently pulling back, a smile on her face.

"So, are we going in, or?"

"If you prefer," he breathed into her ear.

All the confidence that Eren had been feeling going into this vanished rather abruptly when they were actually seated in a small two-person booth in the back of the restaurant. When all he had to look at was Mikasa as she peered over her menu, and all he had to think about was in how many ways physically possible he could fuck this up, he quickly found himself being overwhelmed by the nerves eating away at his gut.

How did you tell someone you wanted to spend your entire life with them? How did you tell someone that they were the love of your life, and that you were ready to take that to the next level? What if Mikasa wasn't ready for that kind of a commitment? If she turned him down, would that be irreversibly awkward for both of them? Him for proposing such a drastic step forward, and her for being made uncomfortable by that idea? Would it ruin a five year long relationship?

All these questions relentlessly battered around in his head and he knew the only way to get an answer was to blurt out the question he was dreading to ask.

"Eren, are you alright?" Eren jumped a bit, snapped out of his train thought by Mikasa's voice as she was looking at him with a somewhat concerned expression on her face. "You've been scowling at that poor salt shaker for at least half a minute."

Eren managed to give her a smile. "Yeah, I'm fine." Mikasa didn't look entirely convinced, so Eren opted to open a conversation instead. "How are your parents?" he blurted out. Mikasa blinked and was silent for a moment, possibly not expecting the sudden change in conversation, not that Eren could blame her. How are your parents? Why the hell did he say that? That was possibly once of the most random things he could have ever had spewed from his mouth.

"Oh, they're fine," she said. In her defense, Mikasa was taking the fact that he was asking about her parents on a date between them when Mikasa literally lived in the same apartment with him fairly well. "I went to see them the night before last, had dinner with them. It was nice. We- Eren, are you sure you're alright?"

Eren was suddenly aware that he was playing with the wrapper from the straw in his glass of water, twirling it around his finger in knots.

"Yeah, why?" he tried to sound nonchalant, but Mikasa wasn't having any of that.

"You seem on edge about something."

Eren tried to dismiss her worries as he reached for his drink, but instead of grabbing the glass, he knocked it over. The water slid across the wooden table and landed on his shirt, spreading all the way down his pants. A loud cruse tore from his lips, one that earned him a very pointed glare from an elderly woman sitting a few tables down from them.

Mikasa started to say something, but he cut her off.

"I'll be right back."

When Eren finally made it to the bathroom, he just wanted to scream in frustration before even tending to the reason he was in this embarrassing position in the first place. Why was this so damn hard? Why was he having such a hard time asking one simple question to Mikasa, of all people? They had been dating for years, and had known each other for so much longer. They had spent almost a lifetime together, and Eren knew her as well as he knew the back of his hand. It was just Mikasa. Yeah. "Just" Mikasa. That in itself was almost a laughable concept. There had never been, nor would there ever be a "just" Mikasa. She was such an integral part of his life, he cared about her so much, and he knew she returned the feelings. He knew there was literally no chance of her not accepting his proposal, and he had no reason to be as tense as he was. As he was seriously contemplating just drowning himself in a urinal, Eren felt his phone vibrate. He slid the screen upward, to see a text from Armin.

Hey, how's it going, Romeo? ;)

Eren tried not to cringe when he replied.

I just spilled water all the way down my shirt lol

That literally does not surprise me. At all.

Eren groaned audibly, shoving his phone back into his pocket before he said something to Armin that he violently regretted. He wasn't sure why he thought Armin would offer him actual emotional support for once in his life; it wasn't like Armin had ever been anything but a pain in the ass about his and Mikasa's relationship since day one.

"Sorry about that." Eren muttered, still feeling a small sense of embarrassment even as Mikasa smiled back at him when he rejoined her at the table, his shirt dry.

"Why are you apologizing to me? You spilled it on yourself, not me."

Eren rolled his eyes at her, returning his gaze back to the plate of food in front of him. "Thanks for reminding me."

"Eren." The brunet's gaze met Mikasa's, as she stared at him intensely, "please tell me what's bothering you. I can tell there's something not right."

Finally, Eren looked up at her, his eyes determined. It was time to just get it over with. Whatever happened happened, but he'd have to ask her before she could react to it. Eren sighed.

"I just wanted to ask you something." There was silence, prompting Eren to continue. He swallowed a lump in his throat. "You're so beautiful," he breathed. "You're the sweetest, most beautiful person I've ever met, and I just..." his voice trailed off. Mikasa's eyes were watching him carefully. "I love you so much, Mikasa. I..." Eren groaned out loud; why was this so impossible? "Oh, for fuck's sake. Will you marry me, Mikasa?"

Silence followed the sudden outburst, as Mikasa stared at him with wide eyes.

"What?" she finally managed to ask, as if in disbelief.

Eren was suddenly aware that his dumb ass hadn't even pulled the ring out yet. Standing up, Eren slowly made his way into her side of the booth, sliding in next to her. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the small box that was holding the ring. He removed it and slid it over Mikasa's ring finger, feeling a strong surge of relief when it fit perfectly. Eren pressed his lip against the top of her hand, and then took her other hand in his, looking her dead in the eyes as she began to tear up.

"I love you," he murmured, as their eyes locked intensely. "Mikasa, you're the kindest, sweetest, and most beautiful person I have ever met, and I'd be honored if you would be my wife."

Mikasa burst into tears and threw her arms around his neck, burying her face against his chest. "Of course," she finally managed to breathe. "Of course." When Mikasa finally seemed to compose herself enough to look him in the eyes again, she finally really looked at the ring. It was just a simple silver band, with a single small translucent diamond set in the middle, but Mikasa was looking at it like it was worth a million dollars, like it was the single most important thing she had ever laid eyes on.

"It was my mother's," Eren said softly. "I thought it suited you, too."

Mikasa could feel more tears coming at that revelation, and she hugged him again.

"I love you so much."

* * *

A frowned formed on Eren's face when he looked in the window of his car. The briefcase that he'd left on his seat was gone. Eren found his brows furrowing in confusion; he could have sworn he left the quinque right there. Where the hell did it go? As Eren moved to enter the driver's seat of the car, he suddenly lost all concept of where he was. He felt a sharp pain in his hips, and the world was spinning until he finally stopped at the base of a building.

"EREN!" Mikasa was by his side in a second. Only a confused, pained groan passed his lips as he moved to sit up, his hands on his head. When he was finally upright, he made eye contact with Mikasa, who was glaring at something to her right. Eren followed her gaze, to see a tall, large, well-built, blond figure approaching them.

He was a ghoul - even as the creature slowly stepped closer to them, his golden eyes were changing colors, his iris becoming the color of blood and sclera a shade of midnight black. The koukaku kagune emerging from his right shoulderblade covered was large and bulky, adding a considerable mass to his arm - the limb it had coated protectively. The kagune itself took the form of plates of armor that strongly resembled bones, broken only by a few crevices of red lines running between the plates. There was no visible weapon on the defense-based kagune, but Eren found himself very on edge, standing while situating Mikasa behind him.

When the ghoul spoke, his voice was gruff and deep. "Eren Jaeger." The name was not a question, but a statement. Eren tensed up, his glare hardening as the ghoul continued to move toward the two of them. The two of them... Eren's heart sank as he suddenly hyper-aware of Mikasa, who was still standing behind him silently. Mikasa, the very defenseless human with absolutely no prior training as to how to combat ghouls, whose survival was completely defendant on him, the Ghoul Investigator with a missing quinque. Suddenly, however, a weight in his pocket was very much there, very much noticeable. The pager. Slowly reaching in, he felt for the button on the side, and pressed it. All he had to do was last that long, long enough for the reinforcements to arrive, and keep Mikasa and himself safe for that time. If he could do that, they'd both be fine.

With the ghoul finally feet from them, the blond creature finally stopped.

"I've wasted a lot of time and many people have died trying to find you. Let's make this fast." The ghoul made a motion to swing at him, but Mikasa suddenly shoved past him, standing so that he was now behind her, her grey eyes hard and determined as she stared at the ghoul. For some reason, her presence between the monster and himself seemed to stop him for moment, as he halted to look at her in what seemed to be confusion.

"Mikasa, what the hell are you-" Eren started to stay, but was cut off when she looked over her shoulder to face him, her eyes pleading and very desperate.

"Get out of here now," she ordered him, turning back to face the ghoul. Any thoughts Eren might of had to question what she was trying to accomplish by standing up to the ghoul vanished abruptly when two bulges appeared on her shoulders and tailbone, exploding in a flash of blood into two very distinct appendages that Eren recognized all too well. A pair of whispy wings burning as if they were on fire poised over her back, and a long white tail wrapped it's way around her leg, as the unmistakable kagune of the Fox Ghoul emerged from Mikasa's body.

Eren was vaguely aware of Mikasa's voice calling out to him, telling him to move before anything bad could happen to him, but the sound was muffled, distant - as if he was underwater, as if some kind of invisible force was weighing down upon him so heavily that the world was no longer real, that only his mind existed. A knot was forming in his throat that was so large, so thick and so heavy that he couldn't swallow it - it merely choked him, merely contributed to the heavy feeling that was crushing the life out of him as he stared at the kagune growing from Mikasa's body.

Mikasa was a ghoul.

As impossible as that was, as inconceivable as the mere thought seemed to be, he couldn't deny it as a fact. The evidence was staring him in the face. It was indisputable. Eren felt numb. He couldn't move - he couldn't think. He could barely even breathe. He could only stand there, as the weight of the situation came crashing down around his shoulders. Mikasa was a ghoul. She had always been a ghoul. He had been best friends for most of his life with a ghoul. He had dated a ghoul. He had laughed and cried with a ghoul. He had slept with, kissed and hugged a ghoul. He had just proposed marriage to a ghoul. He had been deceived for this entire life by a ghoul, and even as she moved to defend him from another ghoul, he couldn't help but feel anything but hurt. The sense of betrayal was eating him alive, turning his feet into lead.

When he remained rooted to the spot, Mikasa forcefully dived backwards into him, shoving him off to the side so that they both barely missed the blow that the larger, bulkier ghoul had thrown in Eren's direction. As the two of them landed in a heap together on the hard pavement, Mikasa's eyes met his. Eren's heart sank lower into her chest. The soft, grey color of her beautiful almond-shaped eyes had vanished abruptly, replaced by the empty coldness of a ghoul's kakugan. There was none of that previous gentleness, the kind, caring, concerned demeanor that her eyes always held when she looked at him. It was like it had never been there in the first place, as he was staring into the hungry eyes of a killer, of a species of creature that had lunged at him with the intention to rip his throat out hundreds of times in the past. It was so out of place on her face, so alien to the girl that he had fallen in love with all those years ago. The red and black orbs looked at him no differently as any other ghoul did, as no emotion shone through the darkness of the murderous eyes.

When Mikasa saw the mortification, the utter dismay and disgust that had shone through quite distinctly on Eren's face, she closed her eyes. "Please, just get out of here," she murmured, her voice as soft and as caring as he had ever remembered. "I can hold him off, but you need to get yourself to safety." As the ghoul stepped toward them, Mikasa's wings seemed to burn even harsher and more intensely, a glare forming on her face as she stood up to face the other ghoul, standing between him and Eren.

When she poised her tail with every intent to attack, the other ghoul held up his hands. "Take it easy, would you?" he grunted, looking down at her. "I'm not here to get into a fight with another ghoul. My qualms are not with you." His black eyes focused on Eren.

"If you don't want to fight me, I suggest you move along."

A tense atmosphere settled between the two ghouls, and the blond one refused to budge - he just stared at Mikasa with an unreadable expression.

"Do you even know what the hell you're defending?" he questioned. "That man is a Ghoul Investigator. His job is to kill us. He wakes up every single morning and gets paid to commit genocide. Are you telling me that you'd stand between something like that and one of your own kind?"

Mikasa's body tensed up. "You know nothing about me. You know nothing about him. I have long since chosen where I stand in this world, and if you think that I'm going to feel kinship with you just because we're both ghouls, you are gravely mistaken."

The blond ghoul let out a harsh bark of laughter. "I'll tell you exactly where you stand in this world." He stepped closer to Mikasa, towering over her. "You're an apex predator. You are one of the most efficient hunters to have ever existed. You are superior to humans in every way. But that's not how people see you." His expression drifted to Eren for a moment. "That's not how he sees you. He sees you as a monster, a mindless, heartless animal with no sense of feelings. Just look at the way he's looking at you, even as you vow to lay down your life to save his hide. You are worth no more to him than the weapon your kagune can make him. And if he has you believing any different, he has played you like a deck of cards."

Mikasa fought back any response that would have the shown the ghoul how much pain his words caused her very heart, as she knew deep down they could be true. Eren could hate her now. He could resent her. She might never see him against after this night, but she didn't care about that. All they had built, all they had become - it would mean nothing if he was dead, struck down by a creature she could have defended him from. Even if it cost her the entire future they had built together, she'd make sure Eren walked way from this night alive, without the fear of being hunted by this damn fool of a ghoul.

"Even if that's true, I'm not going to let you kill him."

The blond ghoul's frown turned upward into a sneer. "Well, aren't you just fucking noble? I don't even want to imagine what that human said to you to turn you into his personal little slave. That is just disgraceful of a ghoul like you." He eyed the wings poking out over shoulders, then the tail poised outward at her hips. "Such a powerful kagune you have, and for what? You waste it to defend a murderer against your own kind."

Mikasa's glare hardened. "Stop acting like you have some kind of moral high ground," she spat. "You've been murdering people in this city left and right, making it a living hell for the ghouls living here. Nine people have been murdered in cold blood by your actions. You didn't even eat any of them." She regarded the ghoul with utter disgust. "Ghouls like you are the reason the CCG exists in the first place. You can be peaceful. You can coexist with humans. I've been doing it for my entire life. You choose not to. You choose to be their enemy. You choose to make life a living nightmare for other ghouls. It's all because of ghouls like you."

"The CCG exists because humans are cowards," the other ghoul replied with a laugh. "They can't handle the idea that a species more powerful than they are exists. They can't deal with the idea of being preyed upon like they prey upon other creatures. They're afraid of us because they know they aren't the highest lifeform on the planet, and what's the solution? Destroy it." He stepped even closer to Mikasa. "If you knew a damn thing about me, you'd know that I haven't killed all those Doves because I felt like it, I killed them because the human that you're defending killed one of my best friends a couple weeks ago." He shot Eren a look filled with nothing but hatred and bloodlust. "I finally tracked him down, and I'll be damned if you're going to stand between me and avenging the death of someone who was like a brother to me. Get the fuck out of my way, or I will kill you."

"I have one question," Mikasa asked, her voice flat, ignoring his threat. "Was this ghoul you're speaking of a rinkaku user? A binge eater, as they say?" The ghoul's stark silence and the harsh glare he fixed her in was more than enough of an answer for Mikasa. "I killed that ghoul."

Several moments of tense silence followed her declaration, until the taller ghoul finally managed one single, clipped word:

"What?"

"I killed him," Mikasa repeated harshly. "He was out of hand. He had no self-control to begin with, he was making life incredibly difficult for the ghouls living in Shiganshina, and then on top of that, he tried to kill Eren. He tried to kill someone I love very much, so I defended him."

More silence.

"So," the ghoul finally replied, his voice completely lacking the emotions that had been there moments ago, "you killed him? You slaughtered one of your own people to defend a human? To defend a fucking Ghoul Investigator? And one that you claim to love?" He made a sound of disgust. "That is just utterly repulsive."

Mikasa just glared back at him.

A small chuckle passed the ghoul's lips, as he seemed to recover from the shock of Mikasa admitting she killed another ghoul for the sake of a human. "Well, forget getting out of my way, because you're the one that I'm going to kill now."

Mikasa's response was to hold her tail higher, manipulating the Rc cells as easily as she would lift a finger to flatten the appendages, creating three deadly blades where the tail once was.

"I think you'll find that I won't be killed as easily as you expect," she murmured.

"I would certainly hope not, because that simply would not be satisfying."

Mikasa could feel every muscle in her body tense up as she prepared for an attack from her opponent, however, instead of attacking, the ghoul's kagune seemed to be growing. The thick, white bony plates were expanding, moving out from his arm and covering the rest of his body, all the way from his forehead down to his feet. The only part of him that remained unprotected by the armor was a slit where his mouth was, and the hungry red and black eyes glaring at her with a new bloodlust. Mikasa didn't break her eye contact with him, as she took one step back and into Eren, where he was still standing behind her, watching the scene play out with wide eyes, but otherwise he barely seemed to be registering what was going on.

Without thinking, Mikasa dulled one of her white tails and shoved Eren out of the way, sending him stumbling onto his side. That seemed to knock a bit of sense into him, as he quickly was more alert and stood up, yet out of the way as the heavily armored ghoul charged in the direction of where he stood moments before, heading right for Mikasa.


	7. Fight

As the other ghoul moved toward her, Mikasa could see his weapon finally emerge: small spikes grew from the knuckles on the full-body armor, but this ghoul was still clearly more suited for taking hits than he was dealing them out. Still, she couldn't imagine that she'd want to be on the receiving end of any punches from the small weapon. As the ghoul loomed over her, he snapped back one of his arms and threw a punch toward her with bone-crushing force. Well before the blow would land, Mikasa could already see the mistake this ghoul was making.

As the fist came toward her, the smaller ghoul quickly jumped off to the side, dodging the heavy-handed blow with minimal effort. Still trapped within the momentum of the attack, the slower koukaku brought his fist down upon open air, reacting far too slowly to even come close to hitting Mikasa. Before the ghoul could recover enough to turn around to face her again, Mikasa jumped directly forward using her wings as leverage to propel her body toward the armored ghoul, adjusting her body in midstrike to maximize the momentum from her speed in order to deliver a kick to the back of the ghoul's head with enough force to stagger him, even through all the armor.

When she landed on her feet a few feet away from him, Mikasa stood still for a moment, watching his movements. The ghoul was slow to stand upright again, which was to be expected - that was the weakness of the koukaku ghoul. They were as resilient as a ghoul could be, but that came at the cost of an incredible amount of speed. The fact that her blow had made an impact was encouraging - it meant that she wasn't completely outclassed against this ghoul. It was incredibly difficult for an ukaku to deal with a koukaku ghoul, as they did a good job of resisting attacks and ukakus were notorious for how quickly their energy drained, especially if they were firing off crystals a lot. Fortunately, Mikasa had another option: her tail. It wasn't exactly ideal against a koukaku, but if a kick was able to stagger him, Mikasa was certain her bikaku could do some damage.

When the ghoul was alert again, the first thing he did was run at Mikasa a second time. Mikasa began to slowly step backwards, doding a barrage of punches that the blond ghoul was throwing at her in vain, getting increasingly more agitated with each unsuccessful attempt to hit her. Mikasa was calm was as she continued to evade the spiked fists, waiting for a good opportunity to hit back; she wasn't going to rush into it and risk getting nailed by him. Unlike most ukaku ghouls, Mikasa could afford to allow a fight to drag out. Finally, she saw an opening: the ghoul had halted, getting ready to put his strength into another heavy punch.

This particular section of the small alley they were in was especially narrow, so Mikasa jumped upwards to dodge his attack, using her wings to get an extra burst of height before she smoothed her tail out to form her heavier, strong blade. Using her wings as leverage, Mikasa was able to pull off a somersault in midair, bringing her tail down on the ghoul's armored head with such force that time, he actually did lose his footing and he fell forward onto his knees.

Mikasa kept up her assault, hitting the ghoul from numerous angles while dashing circles around his body. Every time he came close to centering himself again, Mikasa was there, hitting him with another substantially heavily blow from her tail that would throw off his balance once more. It had been what she thought was a pretty one-sided fight, until the blond ghoul suddenly snapped his head upward.

"Bertoldt!" he shouted, Mikasa hesitated for a second, a bit thrown off at the sudden outburst. No sooner had she stopped moving to process what had been said, she was knocked off her feet by a heavy blow to her head. She blinked upward in shock, watching as second ghoul approached the one she'd already been attacking. This ghoul was even taller than the other one, with somewhat tanned skin and short black hair. The newcomer's eyes were fixed on Mikasa.

"What's going on here?" he asked.

"She's the one who killed Marcel." Mikasa climbed back to her feet as the dark-haired ghoul continued to stare at her in disbelief.

"Are you sure, Reiner?" he questioned.

The blond ghoul, who Mikasa now knew as 'Reiner', nodded. "That's what she told me."

"Then let me help you."

Reiner frowned. "Are you sure, Bertoldt? I know you have a hard time con-"

"We need to work together to avenge him. You seem to be pretty outclassed by her, anyway. I'll even the stakes."

If Reiner was offended by Bertoldt's words, he didn't express it, even as the dark-haired ghoul stepped closer to her. Mikasa tensed her body, preparing for the emergence of Bertoldt's kagune, but nothing could have prepared her for she saw.

It was koukaku like Reiner, but that was where the similarities to any kagune Mikasa had even seen ended. The kagune started at his shoulderblade, and quickly enveloped his entire body. The weapon was red, and even as it began to expand, it grew, eventually taking the form of the upper half of a body that completely covered Bertoldt's normal ghoul body. It was as red as crimson, almost as if made of muscles, with two huge clawed arms and hands, which it was using to support the kagune as the rest of the 'body' fleshed out. The kagune had a face, with soulless white eyes and a mouth complete with teeth. With the kagune out, Bertoldt was at least three times his previous height. Mikasa couldn't really even tell where the ghoul ended and the kagune began, as he was buried somewhere deep within the weapon.

Swallowing back the suddenly very real doubt she had growing in her gut, Mikasa propelled herself into the air with her wings. She didn't have time to question her abilities - she just had to act. Even as she was airborne, Mikasa changed the shape of both her tails and her wings. She knew nothing she could do with her larger tail would do an ounce of good against this ghoul, so instead she split it apart into three smaller blades, along with sharpening her wings to use as blades. Mikasa began lashing out at the ghoul's kagune with her five weapons, probing for any sort of weakness in the armor, any indication of where the ghoul actually was.

Finally, Mikasa landed and was about to jump up again, but was suddenly knocked off her feet as Reiner tackled into her, sending her falling to the ground. Mikasa mentally cursed herself for being stupid enough to forget he was there.

A couple winded coughs tore past Mikasa's lips as she moved to stand, but Bertoldt's hand was upon her almost instantly, the heavy fingers trapping her form in a steel cage and pressing her down against the ground with a painful amount of force. Mikasa managed to turn her head enough to look up at the expressionless face of his kagune. Her tail had split again into three blades that were lashing out at the limb pinning her in something close to desperation as she tried to get him off of her. Not surprisingly, her kagune bounced off the hard surface of the koukaku like it was nothing. She gritted her teeth in frustration and crystallized one of her wings before launching a small burst directly into the base of the kagune, hoping to hit the ghoul hiding under the massive kagune.

Mikasa couldn't tell if she actually hit Bertoldt or not, but the kagune's second hand began to move and grasped one of her wings, crushing the limb in the tight grip. As this new force was applied to her kagune, the hand pinning her to the ground was lifted. The hand holding her wing began to lift her up into the air. Once she was eye level with the second head, Bertoldt shook her violently. With her world spinning, Mikasa closed her eyes and tried not to scream in agony at the almost unbearable sensation her wing was giving her, like it was about to disconnect from her body. The shaking stopped for just a moment, before he tossed her into one of the stone walls in the alleyway.

The second her back came into contact with the building, Mikasa could feel all the air in her lungs leave her body in one loud gasp of pain. When she fell to the ground, the ghoul was face-to-face with Reiner's white foot, as he brutally kicked her in the face before she had a split second to react. The force of the kick sent her sliding across the small alley, scraping her body again the rough pavement. When Mikasa finally regained her surroundings enough to bring herself to even attempt standing, she was keenly aware of something wet on her face. Mikasa tried not to cringe in disgust as the incredibly unpleasant taste of ghoul's blood came in contact with her tongue. Wiping away the first of the blood away with the back of her arm, Mikasa moved to stand, but was stopped. Bertoldt's hand was upon her once more, pressing down on her again, only this time, he didn't just push her against the ground, he wrapped the fingers of his other hand around her wing again.

"You're not nearly as tough as you think you are," he said from somewhere within his kagune, his voice very flat. "Everything you've done so far has just been grating. Trying to kill a friend of mind is beyond excuse." Mikasa grimaced when he tightened his grip on her wing tremendously, as if he was trying to crush the appendage. "Why don't we even the playing field a bit?" Mikasa resisted the urge she had to explain the irony of that particular statement, and instead found herself biting back a whimper of pain as Bertoldt increased the force with which he had her pinned against the ground. To her horror, she soon realized what he was doing when the hand holding her wing started to pull back, taking the kagune that was still very much attached to her body with it.

When the pulling started to get more substantial, Mikasa gritted her teeth, willing herself not to react to the pain. She didn't want to give either of these two miserable excuses for ghouls the satisfaction of hearing it. Mikasa's teeth were clenched together so tightly that she felt like they might crack as the tugging only got worse, and her thrashing at the hand pinning her down with her tail only got more severe and most desperate, but it also wasn't doing her any good. Mikasa was well aware of that fact, but she felt like doing nothing was a worse alternative.

For a second, the pressure let up, and she had thought for a moment that he was going to stop, but now rather than pulling in one solid motion, the kagune was tugging at her wing in quick bursts, quite effectively maximizing the intense pain she was is. Tears began to stream down her face, and Mikasa suddenly didn't care if she cried out or not. Finally, in one last brutal tear, Mikasa could feel her kagune disconnect from her body, and this new revelation was accompanied by a scream of pain unlike anything Mikasa had even produced before in her life. Her chest was heaving, breathing short and hollow, and every bone in her body willed Bertoldt to get off of her, to not do the same thing to her other wing.

She wasn't really surprised when she felt Bertoldt immediately going after her second wing after the first one had finally disintegrated. Disappointed, yes, but not surprised. Still, from somewhere deep within her body, she found the strength, the knowledge to prevent a level of pain like what she had just experienced from being repeated. When the pulling continued, and a part of her noticed that he was doing it even more slowly this time around, Mikasa reconnected her tail and brought it to the base of her wing in one motion, severing the appendage in one powerful strike. Another shriek of pain accompanied the self-inflicted injury, and Mikasa found herself panting heavily, trying to stop the blinding stream of tears that seemed as endless as the agony her body was in.

"Pathetic," she heard Bertoldt mutter, before she was crashing into a building once again, thrown by the much larger ghoul for a second time. Upon sliding to the ground, Mikasa didn't budge. She didn't have the energy. She felt totally burned - completely drained of any semblance of strength she might have possessed. Her entire body was in incredible pain that the young ghoul had never experienced before, every muscle in her body hurt to even think about using.

She didn't move, even as she heard footsteps from one of the ghouls approaching her exhausted, bleeding, bruised body. The ghoul knotted his fingers in her raven hair, forcefully yanking her upward into a sitting position against the wall she was slumped in front of. Mikasa finally opened her red and black eyes, staring directly into Reiner's face as he looked at her with an unreadable expression.

He looked up at Bertoldt, who had finally put his kagune away. "I think this one is done."

"Just finish her off, then."

Reiner looked back at her, a smirk contorting his expression. "You should have just stood down when I told you to. All this could have been avoided." The blond ghoul raised a spiked fist, preparing to bring it down upon Mikasa, when she suddenly heard a voice ring out in the night, as clear as day:

"FIGHT!"

The voice suddenly jostled Mikasa, stirred something deep within her, as she recognized that voice. She reorganized it all too well. Her eyes crossed the small battleground, to where Eren was still standing at the front of the alley, watching the entire fight play out.

His eyes were burning a fiery green when they made contact with hers. "I know you're better than this, Mikasa, I've seen it myself! Don't you dare give up! You have to fight!"

"I'll take care of him," Bertoldt said, looking at Eren in annoyance. "We haven't had anything to eat in a while, anyway." As the tall ghoul stepped closer to Eren, Mikasa felt a new fire burn in her muscles, in her entire body. Like hell was she going to just let that damn ghoul kill him, especially after all he had put her through. Ignoring the terrible ache in her entire body, Mikasa lifted one of the blades of her tail, delivering it straight into one of Reiner's exposed eyeballs. The burly ghoul immediately released Mikasa's head, howling in pain as he grasped at his eye socket, as if trying to make the injury go away. When he heard Reiner's outburst, Bertoldt began to turn around, only to find himself looking at Mikasa's tail, as she ran it through his chest.

The ghoul was completely silent, immobilized by the sudden attack, as he stared down at his chest in shock. Mikasa glared upward at him.

"Don't turn your back on an enemy who is smarter than you," she managed to gasp out, before brutally ripping her tail out of his body, slashing his shoulder for an added measure as he collapsed at her feet.

"BERTOLDT!" Reiner was by his friend's side with an impressive amount of speed. After a few seconds of looking over his injuries, he glared up at Mikasa, who had all three of her tails poised in front of her, sharped and ready to strike at any given second.

The stalemate was interrupted rather quickly, as voices could be heard approaching the alley. From his position at the back of the alley, Reiner could see the identity of whoever was coming near them, and his face contorted into a smirk as his kagune faded away.

"Have fun dealing with the CCG. We'll see how far your love for this Ghoul Investigator gets you when you're staring down a whole group of them." With that, Reiner carefully picked Bertoldt up, slinging the man's abnormally tall form over his shoulders with a surprising amount of ease. He was able to use a small mound of trash cans to vault up onto the roof, and he vanished over the edge of the building.

The very second her enemy was gone, Mikasa collapsed. That last attack had taken the last bit of energy she could have possibly possessed, and now even her chest was heaving with the effort of breathing. The ghoul closed her eyes and tried to resist passing out, focusing on the restricted amount of air she was able to draw into her lungs with each largely unsuccessful breath she drew.

"There he is!" A new voice drew Eren's attention to the front of the alley, and three men bearing quinques had appeared, led to this location by his distress signal. Eren looked back between Mikasa and the three men that had appeared in the alleyway, his heart racing in a way in couldn't entirely explain. He should have been relieved to see them, but he could now feel nothing but dread. His fiancée - his ghoul fiancée - was very much exposed for all three of them to see when they finally came to a stop by Eren's side.

Mikasa was slowly picking herself up off the ground, the stains from the tears that had only recently begun to stop still very much present on her face. What was left of her wings poked out from either shoulderblade - tiny little nubs that only barely showed themselves from under the sweater she was wearing. She moved to stand up, placing her hands on the ground in front of her for support as she tried to maneuver her legs under her body. The second Mikasa shifted her body weight to her legs, she collapsed onto her stomach again. The only sound that managed to escape her weak form was a very tired, very pained sigh, and she slowly pulled herself to her knees again, where she finally stopped moving. The breaths from her heaving chest were almost alarmingly labored, struggling greatly with the effort of something so simple.

Finally, she looked back up at him, her expression getting his full attention for the first time since she had engaged that first ghoul. It was hard to read any emotions in her eyes through that kakagan, but he could definitely see the apprehension in her body language. A million different emotions began to batter Eren's head, fighting for control of his body as he started back straight into her alien black-and-red eyes.

"Eren!" The brunet looked up suddenly, as the voice of the last person on earth he wanted to see right at that particular instance pierced the very stark silence of the dark alley and his father slowly approached him, though his eyes were definitely not focused on his son. Mikasa had the man's undivided attention; his expression was shocked, but that changed quickly to something much more negative as he began to fully process what he was looking at: the small extensions where her wings had been, the tail sprawled out on the ground behind her, as she no longer had the strength to hold it upright, the black, black shade of her eyes.

Grisha knew, and he could hardly believe it.

"You're the Fox Ghoul." His words weren't a question, but a statement, and even as he uttered them, Mikasa's eyes fell to the pavement in front of her, her eyes returning to that normal shade of grey Eren knew so well, her kagune vanishing into thin air, as if it had never been there in the first place, as if putting it away would change what they had all just seen. The only evidence that it had ever been present was the holes in her clothes and blood staining the garments where her skin had been torn by the kagune's emergence.

Eren could see echoed in his father's eyes all the emotions that he himself had been feeing: Anger. Hurt. Shock. Disgust. And above all, betrayal. Betrayal that someone so close to him was a ghoul, that she had spent years in their lives without the slightest indication of what she really was. And it wasn't just Mikasa, either. All of the Ackermans. An entire family, one they had been friends with for almost a lifetime - they were all ghouls. Predators. Murderers. Monsters.

If Grisha was feeling any sort of moral conflict over this harsh realization, he hid it fairly well. Unperturbed, he slowly walked past Eren toward Mikasa, unfolding the quinque in his right hand as he closed the small distance began himself and his target. The other two Investigators standing at the front of the alley began to copy his motions. Suddenly, Eren's feet were moving toward Mikasa as well, though for very different reasons than his father and comrades.

_Don't let them kill her._

_Save her._

_Protect her._

Eren couldn't even really put his finger on what was triggering these thoughts, what made him think that it was a good idea to put himself between a ghoul and three Ghoul Investigators, but even as he did so, something deep within knew that it wasn't a wrong decision. The rest of them didn't know that Mikasa wasn't the one who killed all those other Investigators, that she had only shown her ghoul side to protect him. It wouldn't be fair for them to kill her for that. Eren knew that Mikasa wasn't going to walk away from this, but if he could just convince them to spare her life, that would be better than just killing her outright, wouldn't it? Eren wasn't sure of that answer, but Eren did know that he wasn't going to stand by and watch her die, not when he could have prevented it, ghoul or not.

Grisha let out a deep sigh as Eren brushed past him and stood between Mikasa and the older man, acting quite blatantly as a shield. "Eren, please. Don't make this harder than it needs to be."

_Stay calm,_ he mentally told himself. _Don't get angry. You have to reason with them. Mikasa's life is depending on it._

Eren stiffened. "I want rights to her." Silence fell once again in the alley, as Grisha fixed his son in a look that was largely unreadable.

"You know we can't do that."

"Why not?" Eren challenged. "I was the first Investigator on the scene. None of you did a damn thing, you just arrived in enough time to think you have sort of right to step in and kill her."

"You're too emotionally connected to her." Grisha's face softened to something that was annoying piteous. "I know you care about her greatly, but this is exactly why we have to be open-minded about these creatures. They play mind games. They're monsters."

"DON'T CALL HER A MONSTER!"

Grisha sighed. "Eren." His voice was calm, imploring his son to see what he perceived as reason in this situation. "She's a ghoul. Mikasa is a ghoul. You are going to accept that as a fact."

"I have!" Eren spat back. He could feel his body shaking. "I fucking know that she's a ghoul!"

"Then you understand why we have to kill her."

Eren's glare hardened, set in determination. "You're not killing her."

"You are defending a ghoul. You do realize that, don't you, Eren?" The look that Grisha was giving him was stern, like he was gently reprimanding him for misbehaving. "You're defending a ghoul that has killed nine of your comrades in the CCG in cold blood."

"It wasn't Mikasa!" he barked back, and even as Eren spoke those words, he could tell that none of the Investigators staring him down actually believed him.

"Eren-"

"None of you were here!" Eren seethed; he could feel frustrated tears now stringing the back of his that they would question him like that, that they wold accuse him of lying to defend a ghoul, when he had been nothing but loyal to the CCG for his entire career. "There were two other ghouls, both koukakas. They wanted to kill me, and Mikasa..." His voice trailed off as he thought of Mikasa, of what exactly she had thrown away and the absolute thrashing went through just to defend him, and it was enough to push the tears down his face. "...Mikasa was only trying to protect me," he finally said quietly.

"Eren, listen to me." Grisha's voice was firm. "When you joined this force, you took an oath that you would defend human life, did you not? The mere existence of a ghoul with a kagune like hers is a substantial threat to human life. She has to be disposed of, Eren. That's how the CCG has always operated. Don't let your feelings affect your integrity."

As angry as Grisha's words made him, Eren could feel his eyes widen when he heard the word 'kagune' come from his father's lips, because he knew in that instant exactly how he was going to save Mikasa from death. For a brief moment, Eren peeked behind him out of the corner of his eye, back to where Mikasa was still kneeling on the ground, watching the argument go back and forth with a somewhat defeated expression. She was still breathing heavily, still too weak to pick her battered, bruised, exhausted form off the ground. Even if Mikasa wanted to defend herself, Eren doubted she had the energy to even crawl away, much less bring her kagune out, and that was how he was going to convince his father to spare her life.

"Her kagune is exactly why you shouldn't kill her right now," Eren said calmly, his tears stopping as he turned his body just enough so that Grisha could get a good look at Mikasa. "She's too weak to sustain her kagune right now. What good would that do? A quinque can't be made if a ghoul is killed while the kagune is withdrawn. That's the case, isn't it?" Eren maneuvered himself so the he was blocking her again. "You'd be wasting an opportunity to learn more about her kagune and you'd be wasting the chance to make a damn powerful quinque."

Silence fell upon the alley once more, broken only by the agonizing sounds of Mikasa's feeble attempts to breathe.

Finally, Grisha nodded at Eren. "Alright."

"Alright?" Eren echoed, almost as if he didn't believe what he was hearing.

"Alright," the older man repeated. "You have a point, it would be more beneficial for us if she's kept alive for the moment. I won't kill her." The feeling of elation Eren felt at his father's words was short-lived, as Eren was still well aware that Mikasa was going to be arrested, but still very much present. He had done it. He had saved her for a moment, bought himself extra time to really think about what exactly had happened here. It wasn't much, but at least it was something.

"However, you aren't getting rights to her," Grisha told him firmly. "This ghoul is going to be placed in the custody of the CCG, and she'll be kept alive until her usefulness has been exhausted, then a disposal date will be set. You have too much of a bond with her to be given any sort of say in her ultimate fate." Despite how harsh his words were, there was an underlying emotion there, present deep in his face: pity. He felt sorry for Eren, sorry that it had come to this, that he was being forced to have to choose between someone he loved very, very much and a cause he was fiercely devoted to.

"I still have to incapacitate her," Grisha finally said. "So please step aside, Eren." Eren just glared at his father. "Do you want to do it?" he deadpanned.

Eren only just managed to bite back a sigh. "Just don't hurt her," he pleaded softly. "Please. She was only trying to protect me." Eren finally stepped aside, watching the man approach Mikasa with a bitter expression. He wanted to argue the all the points his father made, but decided it was in Mikasa's best interest if he quit while he was ahead.

The second Eren stepped aside, Mikasa felt her eyes slam shut again, as she tilted her head to face the ground in front of her. Her entire body ached, but that was nothing to the shame and unfathomable dead she felt as she listened to Grisha's footsteps approach her slowly, closing the small distance between them far faster than she would have liked. When the sound of his feet against the pavement finally stopped, Mikasa swallowed a thick knot deep in her throat and finally forced herself to look up at him, and almost instantly regretted that decision.

The expression on his face said it all.

Anger.

Disgust.

Betrayal.

So, so much betrayal.

Betrayal for having associating with his family for as long as she had, betrayal for being the one that Grisha believed had killed so many people, including Hannes - a man that Mikasa had cared about as much as Eren had. Betrayal for lying to them, for deceiving them. Betrayal for deceiving his son and "playing" with his heart.

He was looking at her like she was a monster, like she was this horrible disease he wanted nothing more that to eradicate, and it was too much for Mikasa to bare. All the emotions that had just been thrust upon her so quickly came to a head. Eren had been shocked when her kagune came out, but this...this was utter hatred. The knowledge that a man that Mikasa had loved and respected for her entire life, a man that she saw a a secondary father figure, hated her for the very thing that she was...it was too much.

Tears started to pool her her eyes as she looked back down at the pavement in front of her. A second later, she felt something blunt and very heavy come down against her head with what felt like enough force to crack her skull open, then she saw stars and then nothing else.


	8. Cry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slight trigger warning for body horror involving eyes in this chapter.

Armin had to stifle a yawn as he stepped into the main lobby of the incredibly tall building that formed Karanes, the Ghoul Detention Center in Shiganshina. The young researcher slowly approached the room he had been summoned to in the wee hours of the night, long after he had already been home and ready to go to bed, but that's how it was. He was quite frequently called into work after his shifts for various reasons. This time it was related to that Fox Ghoul that he had been hearing so much about. He had only been briefly filled in by the Investigator that had called him, but it seemed that they had finally manged to capture the terror that was this particular ghoul. Despite how tired he was, Armin would be lying to himself if he said he wasn't excited to get to meet the Fox firsthand.

Of course, that meant that he'd have to give it the Rc suppressants that all ghouls in Karanes were constantly under, which was never a fun occasion. Given the nature of a ghoul's body and the fact that they literally could not be damaged by anything but a quinque or another ghoul's kagune, that meant that the only method they had of administering Rc suppressants to ghouls was via syringe in the eye, which was just as dangerous to the person doing it as it was excruciatingly painful for the ghoul. Once they were under the drugs and could no longer use their kagunes, it was nowhere as dangerous, but doing it for the first time was always a little dicey. Armin was one of the only scientists willing to take that risk, and he honestly preferred doing it himself. He was careful when he did, cautious where most of his colleagues weren't, because unlike most of the people in the CCG, Armin didn't get a sense of elation over causing ghouls unnecessary pain.

As Armin approached one of the rooms toward the back of the building, he couldn't help but peer over the guardrails that formed a circle in the center of the room, down into the dark center of Karanes. The structure of the building itself was shaped like a huge steel cylinder, that both extended high up into the sky and buried itself several miles underground. The ceiling at the very top was made of resistant glass, and the entire building was centered by a single long, spiraling staircase that ran the entire height of the prison. The walls along all but the first floor were dotted with cells - hundreds upon hundreds of them. Depending on how dangerous the ghouls were, they were imprisoned on different levels of Karanes. The unranked ghouls were on the very top, and the disturbingly powerful SSS rank ghouls were held deep, deep in the ground, in the cellblock that had never been close to broken into in the entire history of Shiganshina.

Even after years of working here, Armin had never quite gotten used to how imposing that pit was.

* * *

The first thing Mikasa became aware of was panic. When she finally opened her eyes, it was to one of the most horrifying things she thought her mind could have ever conceived. At first, the small object that had been almost pressed up against her eyeball during her lapse in consciousness was blurry, unfocused as she crossed the threshold to full awareness. That quickly changed when her mind was working well enough for her to see that the item mere centimeters from touching her eyeball was in fact a needle. Mikasa's first instinct was to pull away from it, flinching as she did so, but didn't get far as her head was pressed flat against a hard surface. Someone's hand applied sightly more force to her forehead, trying to restrain her jerky motions, and that was when Mikasa tried to move her hand to swipe it away, but found herself unable to move the appendage, as something hard and cold was pressing it against the surface she way laying on. As panic began to seize control of her mind, Mikasa felt her kagune erupt from her body, driven but nothing but her own shock and slight fear. With a swing of the blunt end of her tail, whoever was holding the needle was harshly flung across the room, and she could hear the syringe fall to the ground. Ignoring the very loud sound of her heart hammering in her chest, Mikasa tried to calm herself by first gaining sense of her surroundings.

The second thing Mikasa became aware of was how immobilized her body was. She didn't need to look down at herself to know the position she was in; she could feel metal restraints cutting into both her wrists and ankles, keeping her locked firmly down to what she was assuming was a table of some sort. From her limited perspective, Mikasa could only see pieces of the room she was in, but enough to know that she'd never seen anything like it before. Everything in the small space was white: a painful, uncomfortable, stark blinding white. The only other color in the room was a splash of grey, coming from a stainless steel table sitting a few feet away from her, holding a few tools. In fact, the only object in the room that she could see seemed to be the walls, the table, a white counter in the corner with a cabinet above it, and a light attached to a structure that was connected to the table she was strapped down to, shining almost directly into her eyes.

The third thing Mikasa became aware of was the people standing along the far side of the room, two on either side of the door, that were staring directly at her. Well, 'staring' was a big of a stretch, because the second her kagune came out and the person who had been trying to poke her eye had hit the wall, all four of them reacted toward her aggressively. Four quinques had suddenly manifested themselves in their hands, one of each different Rc type from what Mikasa could tell, but they were all upon her before she could even process what was going on. One of them had a blade pressed up against her neck before she could even blink, while the other three surrounded her, all glaring down at her with great contempt.

"You'd best calm the hell down," one of them snarled. "Don't think for a second that we won't kill you." Mikasa's face was twisted into a glower as she looked directly up at the man that was threatening her. "Just because someone decided your life should be elongated doesn't mean that we won't destroy you right now if you don't cooperate." Mikasa just closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath as she tried to ignore the blade cutting into her throat. She could feel herself slowly calming down, slowly regaining her senses as best she could in order to process the situation. The memories of what had happened earlier that night was still fresh in her mind, and as they came rushing back to the front of her brain, she realized where she was. The last thing she could remember was that horrid glare Grisha had given her after Eren had suggested that she be arrested. She was in the custody of the CCG, somewhere inside Karanes. Finally, her kagune faded away, the knowledge of her location acting as a very effective way of settling her tense body down.

That seemed to satisfy the Investigator, as he lifted the weapon from her throat. "Such disgusting creatures you are." Despite herself, Mikasa couldn't help but fire a glare at the man, which just earned her a smirk. "The truth can be enraging to hear, can't it, Fox? But you already knew. You're more than aware of the damage you've done."

"That wasn't me. I didn't kill anyone." Even as Mikasa spoke the words, she knew it wasn't going to make a semblance of difference if she had killed anyone or not. The fact that she even existed was enough of a crime for them. The Investigator staring her down wasn't the only one of the group that laughed at her when the young ghoul defended herself.

"Oh, I bet," the man who had been talking sneered at her. "I bet you've never done anything dangerous toward people in your entire life, have you? Just like you've never eaten a person before, either, right?"

"You know nothing about me."

"I know that I've seen hundreds of ghouls in the same exact position you're in right now, and none of them have ever managed to convince me-"

"That's enough, Nile." Mikasa almost jumped at the sound of a new voice in the room, because it was a voice that she recognized all too well. Armin was picking himself up off the ground, his normally gentle features contorted into a highly irritated scowl. "I told you that I only want you intervening if I need help." Even as he was snapping at the Ghoul Investigators, he shoved past them so that he looked Mikasa directly in the face for a few seconds. Mikasa tried to brush the guilt she felt over tossing her best friend across the room like a ragdoll to the back of her mind as she met Armin's gaze for several long seconds.

She opened her mouth to say his name, but quickly stopped herself when she saw the harsh look Armin was giving her. It wasn't exactly a glare, nothing like the disgust every other human she'd interacted with in the last couple hours had been, but he was trying to silently communicate with her, to stop her from saying his name out loud. Armin's lips started to move, mouthing silent words that only she could understand: be quiet. His eyes were reserved, warning her to keep her surprise to herself, imploring her to keep up the facade that she was just another ghoul and he was was just another human to her, begging her to trust him. Mikasa gave Armin the tiniest ghost of a nod, and he returned it with a tiny, apologetic smile before turning back to the Investigators.

"She just tossed you across the damn room," one of the Investigators defended. "Her kagune was out."

"Of course she brought her kagune out," Armin snapped back. "She woke up from unconsciousness to a needle in her face. I startled her. That's just instinct. Fight or flight, you know. Surely you've heard of it?"

"Considering how many people this damn ghoul has killed, I don't think it was an unreasonable reaction," another one of them muttered, to which Armin raised his eyebrow at all four of them.

"You know, for people who go out and fights ghouls on a daily basis, you four seem awfully scared of one that's bolted down to a table." Now all of them were glaring at Armin in something close to indignation. Finally, the blond turned back to Mikasa, his expression softening again on command. "She's not going to hurt me, I can guarantee that." Mikasa tried to swallow a lump that was forming in her throat over both her own guilt that she'd unintentionally attacked him and the look Armin was giving her. The previous reservations in his expression was gone, replaced by a deep pity and a desire to be in any position but the one he was in right now.

With a sigh, Armin bent over to pick up the syringe that was still laying on the ground in front of the smaller table. "I have to go replace this." He looked away from the Investigators still surrounding Mikasa as he spoke. "You can go back to your positions. I don't want anyone getting trigger-happy while my back is turned." When Nile opened his mouth to argue, Armin looked him in the face briefly, a rare glare etched onto his features. "It was requested that this ghoul be captured _alive_ so that we would have an opportunity to learn more about the nature of her kagune. That's where she is right now. She's alive, locked down to a table, and about to receive her Rc suppressants. If anything happens to her between now and getting her in her cell, we're going to have some serious problems."

The not-so-subtle threat finally convinced the Ghoul Investigators to back off, and the only sound that could be heard in the room was soft rummaging as Armin pulled a small vial of fluid out of a box gently rocked it back and forth a few times before he stuck a fresh syringe into the rubber toper. He aspirated the needle and flipped the bottle, slowly pulling back on the plunger until the syringe was filled with the liquid.

Holding the injection in his right hand, Armin approached Mikasa from her left-hand side. He adjusted the light so that his body wasn't casting a shadow over her, before giving her a look of the deepest regret and apology. His left thumb and index finger pried her eyeball open and the needle started to approach the exposed eye. The closer it got, the more Mikasa realized she was frighteningly unaware of just how close it was, due to her depth perception becoming nonexistent. Instinctively, Mikasa tried to pull back from the needle, but Armin pressed her head down against the table with the hand that was holding her eye open.

"Don't move," Armin warned her. "That's only going to make this ten times worse." Mikasa tried to even her breathing out so that she wasn't hyperventilating quite as heavily as she was. Every bone in her body was screaming to summon her kagune, to bring it out as the final means of self-defense, but she wouldn't allow it. She wasn't going to hurt Armin - she shouldn't let herself.

Suddenly, she felt it. Oh, did she felt. In a second, the sharp tip of the needle went from a slight discomfort in her eye to something excruciatingly painful, unlike anything she'd ever felt in her life. Her entire body jolted intensely with the severity of her discomfort. A shriek of pain tore it's way past her lips, her nails scratching at the steel table she was strapped down to, as they had nothing else to grab at. Armin's thumb seemed to be pressing down on the syringe's plunger at a disgustingly slow pace and Mikasa had to put all her energy into fighting off the blade her tail wanted to emerge as.

As quickly as it had started, the needle was pulled out, leaving nothing behind a heavily watering eye and slightly blurred vision, through both the vision and the stinging pain from the needle piercing her eyeball cleared up mere seconds after Armin pulled back. The blond gently forced her eye open one last time, inspecting the body part with a small flashlight he pulled from the pocket of his lab coat.

He gave her a small smile. "Your body has already healed your eye." He looked up from her, to the Investigators. "Once the suppressants kick in, two of you can escort her to her cell."

The slight confusion Mikasa was feeling at his words cleared up mere moments after Armin spoke, as she was suddenly _very_ aware of another intense discomfort in her body. It felt like her body was on fire, like molten lava was flowing through her bloodstream. She let out a small gasp of pain and one of the Investigators laughed at her.

"Yeah, that would be the Rc suppressants. They apparently hurt like a bitch."

Once the pain had subsided after a few agonizing minutes, the cuffs holding her down to the table were finally opened and she was given a chance to sit up. It was then that Mikasa became aware of what she was wearing. She was dressed in a simple long-sleeved white gown that went all the way down to her ankles, and any footwear seemed to have vanished completely. She had barely processed that before she was roughly jostled to her feet by the Investigator Armin had called Nile, and a pair of handcuffs were secured around her wrists.

* * *

Upon crossing the threshold to what Mikasa had assumed would be her cell, she hesitated, giving herself a moment to take in her new surroundings. She was at least ten floors downstairs from the first floor of the detention center, staring at a heavy-looking steel door that was opened. The first door lead to a sort of in-between space - a small area that contained nothing but a small folding metal chair that was seated in front of a microphone and a glass wall, presumably for communicating with the ghoul on the other side of the glass. The entrance to the actual cell took the form of a solid steel door in the corner of the room, a few inches away from the large window.

Mikasa suddenly let out a small gasp of pain, as the Investigator standing directly behind her bashed the heel of his hand into the back of her head, jarring her entire body forward, reminding the ghoul to keep moving. The other prison worker moved toward the cell door, unlocked it with a key at her belt, and pulled the door open. Begrudgingly, Mikasa moved toward the small entrance with minimal goading from the man escorting her, as she was really not in the mood to get hit by him for a second time. Once she was inside the cell, her handcuffs were removed.

"Welcome home," Nile sneered. "Now, I do hope this is to your liking, because we work hard to make sure you miserable beasts are as comfortable as humanly possible for however long you have before you're killed." He backed out of the cell, grabbing the door. "If it's not, well, you'd best get used to it, because it's going to be your entire world for the rest of your life."

The heavy door slammed shut with a deafening crash that reverberated intensely though the small area, leaving a ringing in her ears. There was one last slam, as the door leading out into the hallway was closed as well, and then there was silence. A stark, empty silence that was completely alien and uncomfortable to her. In a way, it was even more deafening than the sound of that door slamming shut, for it brought with it a crushing sense of isolation that Mikasa had never felt in her entire life. The only sound manifested in the cell was the small padding of her bare feet against the cold, hard floor.

The cell itself was square and small, featuring what she was assumed was the kagune resistant steel that quinques were made from as three of the four walls, the floor and the ceiling. The final wall was made almost entirely of glass, minus the spot where the door to the cell was, and all the light that entered the box manifested from a ceiling light on the opposite side of the glass. Mikasa's side of the window also had a metal chair and a microphone, and the only other piece of furniture in the room was a bed shoved against one of the far walls.

Mikasa found herself naturally drawn toward the bed, as it was the only object in the room that wasn't cold and hard, and she was suddenly _very_ aware of how exhausted the night's events had left her. Her body hurt, her muscles hurt, she was weaker then she'd ever felt in her entire life. Even thinking seemed to hurt, as her brain felt too cluttered by hundreds of conflicting thoughts and emotions to be able to differentiate one from the other. All the young ghoul knew was that she was tired and she hurt and all she wanted to do was fall asleep for the next twenty years.

She sat on the bed and pressed her knees up against her chest, pulling the gown down over her legs before wrapping her arms around her kneecaps. For a moment, she felt numb, so overwhelmed by the events that had transpired in the last few hours that wasn't capable of feeling anything at all. That changed abruptly when she happened to catch sight of the ring on her finger, the engagement ring that Eren had given her what felt like a lifetime ago. The ring acted like a beacon of reason in her jumbled mess of a brain, clearing out the other thoughts that stood in the way of her realization of the situation she was in. She was locked somewhere within Karanes, one of the biggest and most secure ghoul detention centers in the region. The mere concept of that was horrifying to most ghouls that she had known in Shiganshina. Her parents had always been highly leery of the place.

Suddenly, Mikasa felt a brick of solid lead drop into the pit of her stomach.

Her parents.

_Her parents._

Her parents had no idea what had happened. They had no idea that she had exposed the ghoul part of herself - of her entire family - to a Ghoul Investigator who was more than aware of their identities and where they lived. The thought hadn't even crossed her mind when she had first brought her kagune out to protect Eren, but now that she was able to stop and look back on it, panic was quickly grasping hold of her entire body.

Somebody had to warn them. If they didn't... She couldn't bring herself to think of it.

Her parents had been as a peaceful as a ghoul could be, even going as far as to raise Mikasa on a strict diet of scavenged corpses from both humans and other ghouls. Even as an adult, they still fed her when she was hungry. Her parents loved people, they respected them and wanted to live among them and to Mikasa's knowledge, neither of them had killed a human being in her lifetime. To kill them would be murder, and even as Mikasa was thinking that, she found somewhere within herself a fresh resolve. With somewhat panicked determination fresh in her mind, Mikasa stood up and moved toward the glass window of her cell, inspecting it. She was almost certain that her kagune would be able to break through it, if she could just bring herself to release it.

That was much easier said than done, as she felt heavy and sluggish, weak like she'd never been in her life. She couldn't feel her kagune at all; normally releasing it was as easy to her as moving a finger. She never had to fight with her body to even be able to sense the kagune's presence, but that was exactly what she was doing now. Mikasa's exhausted body simply wasn't able to summon it. It wasn't like the exhaustion she'd felt after finally chasing off the ghouls she'd fought earlier. This was just a complete and total weakening of her entire body that made her natural strength nonexistent.

Frustrated tears began to swell in her eyes. Mikasa _knew_ how to use her kagune. Ever since she had first brought it out when she was just a child, it had been just as much a part of her as her arms and legs. She had spent years experimenting with it, learning how to shape it, how to sharpen and dull and fuse and separate her tails at will, even figuring out how to condense and form her wings into blades for hand-to-hand combat. She may have rarely had a use for it, but it was always there, always ready to emerge at the drop of a pin. It had never failed her in her entire life, and yet here she was, literally pleading with her body to cooperate at the moment when she needed her kagune more than she ever had before.

Suddenly, she heard the sound of a door opening. Mikasa looked up from the feeble attempt on her strained body to summon her kagune, to see that Armin had entered the interrogation area and was moving toward her cell door. There was also a female Investigator with him, but after a dialogue Mikasa couldn't hear, she just stood in front of the glass rather than following Armin in. No sooner had he opened the door and crossed the threshold to the small room, Mikasa had moved toward him.

"Hey, how is your ey-" he started to ask, greeting her like it was under completely normal circumstances, but was cut off when Mikasa grabbed both his shoulders, her entire body trembling.

"Armin, please," she pleaded, a few stray tears slowly sliding down her face as she looked at her friend. "I need your help."

The look Armin gave her in response was one of the most piteous things she had ever seen in her life as he gently took hold of her forearms. She looked like she would fall over if he wasn't there to support her. "Take it easy," he tried to coax.

She shook her head vigorously, as the tears started to fall freely down her cheek. "I can't. Arm-"

"You _need_ to," Armin cut her off. His voice was firm, but not harsh. "I'll help you if I can, but you can't be freaking out." He nodded his head toward the glass, where the Ghoul Investigator was watching Mikasa specifically. "She's there for my protection and I convinced her to let me talk to you alone. If she is given a reason to think you're dangerous to me, it won't end good for you. Just remember where you are." When he saw that Mikasa seemed to have at least recovered from the mildly hysterical state she was in seconds ago, he smiled at her - a small ghost of a smile, but a smile nonetheless."Now, what is it?"

"My parents," she somehow manged to choke out past the tremendous lump that had formed in her throat. "I know they're going to go after them next. Somebody has to warn them."

"Were you trying to bring your kagune out for that reason?" The look Armin was giving her was so sad, so soul-crushing, so apologetic that it made Mikasa's heart rate spike in a very apprehensive way.

"Armin, please." She buried her face against his chest as he was still holding her upright. The tears cascading down her face dampened the front of the white coat he was wearing. "Please go to their house and make sure that they're okay."

Mikasa expected Armin to agree to help her. She expected him to hug her and tell her that he'd do what he could, to reassure her that he'd at least try, even if the situation looked bleak. None of that happened, instead he very gently took her by the hand, guiding her toward the bed in the corner of the room.

"Sit down," he sighed, joining her on the piece of furniture once she off her feet. Armin hoisted one of his legs up onto the bed, turning his entire body to face her. Tears were starting to form his large blue eyes when she finally met his gaze.

Mikasa's heart was pounding loudly in her ears.

"Mikasa, it's been hours since you were first incapacitated."

The dark-haired girl just blinked at him. What? How was that even possible? She had woken up in the middle of receiving her Rc suppressants, then had immediately been moved to her cell. Shiganshina wasn't exactly a small city, but there was no way the trip to the prison had taken the hours Armin was claiming had passed. Her confusion must have shown on her face, as the blond tried to keep his voice steady as he explained himself further.

"You were detained because of your kagune. Most of the people on the force were pretty fascinated by it, as we've never seen anything like it before. Before you were even processed in the prison and your Rc suppressants administered, you were taken to a laboratory where they took samples of various parts of your body. Skin scraps, cheek swabs, x-ray images, that kind of stuff." Mikasa tried not to outwardly cringe at the idea that a bunch of scientists were doing unknown things to unknown parts of her body while she was unconsciousness, but managed to shove it to that back of her mind in the face of a much bigger issue. "That took over two hours. Do you understand? It's too late to do anything." Tears started to slide down his face. "It's way past the point where I could do anything for them."

In that second, something snapped in her. She couldn't understand why Armin wasn't doing anything, why he was refusing to help her. Did he resent her as well? He was trying to tell her that he couldn't do anything, that it was so far gone that it wasn't even worth trying, that she was supposed to just sit back and do what she was told while there was still a chance her parents were alive. Did Armin not understand that? This wasn't some minor little thing that she was overacting about; this was the lives of her family, and she wasn't going to sit down and do nothing. Mikasa suddenly pulled away from him, her eyes fixed into a harsh glare. "Then I'll do something." As the ghoul moved to stand, Armin tightened his hold on her hand.

"What on earth do you plan on doing?" When Mikasa ripped her hand away from him, he stood back up to follow her. "Break that glass? Do you even realize how reinforced that is?"

"My kagune can do it."

Armin groaned. "I realize that, but you're not going to bring your kagune out. You're not thinking at all, Mikasa." He stepped closer to her. "You may be a strong ghoul, but you're not stronger than Rc suppressants. This drug is specifically designed to attack your Rc cells, and it makes using your kagune literally impossible while it's present in your body. You're just going to get yourself killed for nothing."

Several moments passed, as Mikasa opted to ignore Armin. She was pressing her body again, straining muscles she didn't know she could strain, trying in vain to find anything that even resembled her kagune. As she grew more tired, she grew more frustrated as well, and soon the tears reappeared, this time accompanied by a more panicked fit of hyperventilating. She was so helpless. She was so useless. It was something she had never experienced before on his level - having her kagune taken away from her left the ghoul feeling so naked, so incomplete, for a very important part of who she was had indeed been lifted from her body. Mikasa was dimly aware that her crying had become audible.

Her legs began to give out from under her, but Armin was there to catch her, looking at his friend with his sad blue eyes. He took hold of her forearms once more, offering her extra support, as he guided her toward her bed once more.

"Mikasa, you _need_ to calm down," he chided her once more. "This isn't like human jail, alright? You have no rights in here whatsoever." His eyes softened as her breathing seemed to gradually slow down at his words. "These Investigators aren't going to mess around. If they think you're a threat, they'll kill you on sight, and I'm not going to be there to stick up for you like I did earlier. If you try to escape, they might decide that you're not in a secure enough cellblock. Right now, you're a higher level S class, and believe me, you do _not_ want to be any higher than that." He finally dropped his hands from her arm. "Please just take a deep breath. You've had a very long night."

"And what about tomorrow?" she asked him, her voice deadpan. "You're telling me to rest, but to do what? To wake up tomorrow to nothing but this cell?" As Mikasa spoke she could feel what was left of her heart shattering into hundreds of pieces. To her surprise, however, no more tears came. She just stared at the mattress in front of her, her expression blank. That was it. She was all alone. Her fiancé hated her to the point where he was okay with her getting made into a quinque, Armin was undoubtedly right behind him, her parents were dead. Her life was falling apart at the seams, but she couldn't bring herself to feel anything but numb. Only one emotion was passing through the crushing emptiness: guilt.

This was her fault.

This was all her fault, and she deserved everything that tomorrow brought with it. Her parents were dead because of her.

But what should she have done? What would have been the right choice in that situation? If she hadn't exposed her family's secret, Eren would be dead. She had saved his life, but at what cost? Two other lives for his? Two other lives of ghouls that happened to be her family, for the life of a Ghoul Investigator?

A Ghoul Investigator that she loved more than anything else in the universe, but a Ghoul Investigator that undoubtedly hated her. When Grisha had been so bent on killing her, all Eren could say was to preserve her for her kagune, for the weapon her kagune would make after she was long dead, and nothing else. Mikasa wasn't even going to entertain the idea that she was ever going to see Eren again.

"I don't hate you, you know." Armin's voice jostled Mikasa out of her thoughts and she looked to him again, as he was leaning against one of the walls of the cell, staring out the glass window wistfully. He turned his sad expression to Mikasa once he had her attention. "I know you didn't kill all those Investigators, either. You're not a killer. You don't have it in you to murder someone in cold blood."

Mikasa silently looked back down at her bed, not moving a muscle.

"I still consider you my friend. Your being a ghoul doesn't change the fact that I've known you since we were kids and you and Eren are the closest thing to family I've had for the last several years of my life." He paused, perhaps waiting to see if Mikasa was going to say something and when she didn't, he sighed. "What about you? Do you still consider us friends?"

More silence.

"I'll leave you alone then," he said softly, moving toward the door of the cell. As he approached the door, the Investigator standing on the other side of the glass unlocked it. As the door swung open, Armin lingered by the entryway, staring at the cold steel for a moment, before he gave her one last look.

"I'm sorry, Mikasa. I'm sorry for everything." His voice broke on the last word, and then he was gone.

From somewhere deep within her physically and emotionally exhausted body, Mikasa found a fresh set of tears that began to spill.

* * *

 

When Armin finally got home at four in the morning to incredibly loud sounds coming from Eren's bedroom, he knew that Eren wasn't taking the night's events much better than Mikasa had been. Very quietly, he moved over to the bedroom that was only on the other side of the wall from him and pushed the door open a sliver of a crack, almost scared of what he was about to see.

" _FUCK!"_

Eren was hunched over, repeatedly assaulting one of the walls in the room with his fist. Tears were streaming down his face as endlessly as the steady stream of curses flowing from his lips.

" _GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!"_

He punched the wall once again, a sob wracking his body as he did so. "Why the _fuck_ did you do this to me, Mikasa?"

"Fuck..."

" _FUCK!"_

Eren finally threw himself down onto the bed he had only the night before shared with her, and curled up into himself, his curses melting into heartbroken sobs.


	9. A Call For Help

It was late when David Ackerman heard a knock at his door. It was strange, almost, as the ghoul was definitely not accustomed to having any sort of visitors, period - much less one at this time of night. Mikasa stopped by a few times a month to catch up with them, keep them updated on her life and how it was going and grab something to eat from the excess meat they always kept set aside. Sometimes Eren or Grisha would tag along as well, though Mikasa knew how they felt about her bringing Ghoul Investigators into their home. Still, neither of them disliked Eren. He was a kind boy, a bit stubborn and headstrong and reckless, but his heart was always in the right place and he cared for Mikasa deeply, so they never saw a reason to dislike him. When David opened the door and saw Grisha standing there rather than Eren or Mikasa, his surprise shifted over to confusion and the tiniest shred of apprehension when he noticed that Grisha was clearly on-duty. The dark-haired man was dressed in a long overcoat, and there was a quinque in one of his hands. Even though the Jaegers were old family friends with the Ackermans, he couldn't help but feel somewhat on edge as his eyes looked the Ghoul Investigator in the face.

A friendly smile formed on the ghoul's face. "Hello, Grisha. What brings you here this time of night?"

Grisha didn't return the easy look. "I need to talk to you and Ryoko."

That did little to settle the uneasy feeling gnawing at David's guts. A few different possibilities were swimming around in his head as he stepped back and allowed his friend - his Investigator friend - into his home, to where his wife was sitting in their family room. Ryoko's grey eyes shifted upward when Grisha entered the room after her husband.

"Oh, hel-" she stared to say, a smile on her face, before being cut off by the harsh, angry look on Grisha's face. "Is there something wrong?" she asked.

"You can cut the act," he barked at her, filling their doorway with his seething form. "You two aren't fooling anyone anymore. I know what you really are."

A tense silence fell upon the room, that only got worse when he brought his finger down on the clasp of the briefcase in his hand. The steel shape began to unfold and unwind, taking of the shape of a long steel tail. The length of the tail was lined by ragged-looking serrated edges, and it ended in a large curved sickle that was poised over the back of his head. In a second, David was by his wife's side and the two ghouls were on their feet, bringing out their kagunes in unison.

David's kagune began to take two different forms as it erupted from separate locations on his body: two large black-and-red wings that burned as if light by a wispy fire stuck out from either of his shoulderblades, filling the relatively small space of their living room. A singular white tail was winding it's way around his body, taking the form of a flat blade that was held at his hips. For Ryoko, two sets of red scaled tentacles were emerging from her midback, all four poised in Grisha's direction and more than ready to strike. Both of the ghouls glared at the Investigator harshly.

"You know you don't want to do this, Grisha," David told him, his voice calm in contrast to his face.

"You're right," he told the ghoul in response, his voice as equally calm as David's was. "Our families have a long history together, and it is highly unfortunate that it came to this." The Investigator let out a sigh, looking his friend in the face, straight into his hungry eyes. "But my duty to protect people means more to me than the life of two ghouls."

"Is that all we are to you, Grisha?" Ryoko finally asked, her voice soft. "Just a couple of ghouls in the sea of ghouls you've killed?"

Grisha turned his attention toward the female ghoul. "Believe me, I'd love to say no. Unfortunately, I know how your kind is. The emotions you pretend to put on are as much of an act as when you eat human food in public. I can't believe a damn thing either of you had ever led me to think, because it's as fake as the 'friendship' we once had."

"So, that's it, then?" David deadpanned. "It's that simple, is it?" His eyes hardened. "How long have we known you, Grisha? How many years did we consider each other friends? Fifteen years. Eren and Mikasa were seven years old when we moved to this city, and they've been inseparable ever since." His voice was slowly rising in volume, his expression getting steadily more angry. "Fifteen years. Fifteen years! After all that, are you seriously going to stand there and tell me that you think that was all an act just because we're ghouls? Our emotions are as genuine as any human being's. The only thing that sets us apart is the fact that our bodies are so fucked that we can't digest normal food!"

"The thing that sets us apart is that you are a creature that can only exist through murder and deception," Grisha replied, calm as ever. "Your existence is a threat to human life."

The time, David let out a harsh bark of laughter. "My family are pacifists. We scavenge. We haven't harmed a living human being in more years than I can count. You should perhaps direct your aggression toward ghouls that actually view people as prey."

Grisha finally glared at him. "You say that, but I think Mikasa missed that aspect of her upbringing."

The blond ghoul's eyes hardened when Grisha brought Mikasa up. "What the hell do you know about my daughter?"

"I know that she's been attacking Ghoul Investigators in this city. Surely you've heard about that one, David? A ghoul that's been picking off Investigators and just leaving them. Not even eating them, just killing."

"And you think that Mikasa did that?" he asked, his voice tone taking a strong edge of disbelief. "You think that she murdered numerous Ghoul Investigators for no reason?" When he got no reply, the ghoul made a throaty noise that strongly resembled a growl. "You don't know a damn thing about any of us if you think Mikasa would-"

"I know Mikasa is the one who did it," he snapped back, anger entering his tone for the first time. "Nine deaths. All of them were killed by a torn throat or an ukaku's crystals. Mikasa was spotted for the first time the night before these murders began. She's the only ghoul we've ever seen with a kagune capable of that." He narrowed his eyes. "Unless it was you, David. I can see your kagunes look pretty similar. Did you kill those people?"

"Of course not," he snapped back.

"Among those killed," Grisha continued as if he didn't speak, "was at least one first-class Investigator, who just happened to be my partner. I would have killed Mikasa myself if she hadn't been too weak to stain the kagune when she was neutralized."

David could feel his wings burn more intensely at his words. "You had best quit while you're ahead, Grisha," he snarled, which got no response from the Investigator.

"We arrested her instead," he continued. "She's safe and sound within the walls of Karanes. So I suppose I'll get my quinque eventually. After she gets poked and prodded by scientists for a bit. Or maybe interrogated. Some of the Investigators can be incredibly persuasive, even to stubborn ghouls." His eyes didn't waver from David's. "I'm not picky, but she's going to pay for the lives she took. Luckily for you two, you won't be around to see that."

As he spoke, Grisha twisted the handle attached to the giant serrated blade that was looming behind his body. As if controlled by his will, the weapon lunged toward David. The ukaku dived out of the range of the blade, grabbing his wife's hands and forcefully shoving her toward a different room.

"Get to the kitchen!" he hissed at her. Ryoko nodded quickly, dashing toward the doorway only a few yards away from where they were standing, and David was right behind her. His wings were growing, expanding as he blocked attacks from the quinque with his defensive tail. Once the two of them were inside the tiny kitchen, he stood in the doorway, straining his wings to their full length and width. Once there were double his height, a coating of crystals covered the limbs and he held the hard kagune between himself and the Investigator, acting as a makeshift barrier. However, the wings were not made for defense, so they both knew that it wouldn't last long.

"David, what are we-" Ryoko started to ask, genuinely confused by his logic of coming into this room, but he cut her off.

"We needed a moment to talk, he breathed. "Call Levi."

The Asian woman's eyes widened in confusion at her husband's words.

"We need to get Mikasa out of that prison. If anyone can help Mikasa, it's Levi," he continued, eyes still fixed on her, trying not to finch as the man on the other side of the doorway lashed out at his kagune. "It might be too late for us, but we need to help her. You call Levi, and tell him what's going on. Tell him that Mikasa is imprisoned in Karanes. I'll hold him off while you do that."

Tears filled Ryoko's eyes. "I'm not going to leave you to fight him by yourself."

"You need to," he told her, his voice firm. "We need to worry about Mikasa more than each other. She needs our help."

"Levi is never going to hear me out, David. The last time we spoke, he was ready to kill both of us."

"You've been texting him, right?"

"He never answers me."

David grunted in pain, cringing as he looked his wife in the face. "We don't have time to question that right now. We have to have faith that he still cares about Mikasa enough to let you speak."

"What if Grisha is lying to us?" she fretted. "What if he's already killed her? I don't want to send another one of my children to their death for-"

"Ryoko." When his wife's terrified grey eyes finally met his, he gave her one of the gravest looks that he had ever produced in his life. "We have to do something. We can't die here without leaving behind a second chance for Mikasa, and I'll be damned if I'm going to leave her fate to a bunch of Doves. God knows what they're doing to her now, even as we speak."

Ryoko tried to swallow a lump in her throat at her husband's words, as she knew they were true. No ghoul deserved the utter hell that the Doves subjected imprisoned ghouls to, most of the time due to no reason other than cruelty. Mikasa especially didn't deserve to face the horrors that undoubtedly awaited her in that den of despair. Ryoko didn't care what Grisha said - she didn't believe him. Mikasa wasn't a killer.

"You're right," she finally sighed. "Mikasa needs Levi. I'll make him listen." As she moved, she paused for a moment to grab her husband by the face and kiss him on the lips. They held the gesture for a long time, before she finally pulled away tearfully. "I love you."

He stroked her cheek. "I love you, too."

For a few seconds, they just looked at each other, both of them knowing deep in their hearts that this could be the last time that either of them got a chance to do. Time stopped still for the couple for a moment, but even that could not last and eventually, they broke off from each other, Ryoko retreating to the far corner of the kitchen as David adjusted his wings, forcefully launching himself from the doorway and back into the family room. He barely managed to dodge a swing from the quinque, before tensing himself, sharpening his tail as he dived toward the Investigator.

In the kitchen, Ryoko brought up the contacts screen on her phone with shaking fingers, pressing the cell to her ear as it began to ring. She counted the tones with a very strong fear that Levi was just going to ignore her, as she had predicted. Her heart almost jumped out of her chest when, on the seventh ring, a click told her that someone had picked it up.

For a few seconds there was silence, until Ryoko finally broke it.

"Levi?" she asked softly. More silence. "Levi?" she repeated, this time a bit louder.

She heard a grunt in response. "What the hell do you want?"

It was weird, in a way - hearing her son's voice again, after so long. She had lost track of how many years had passed since he went storming out their front door, after drawing his kagune on his own father, terrifying Mikasa to the point she had cried, vowing revenge for what humanity had taken from him. It was a path that the rest of his family refused to follow him down, and they hadn't had a word of contact with him since then. Ryoko was certain much had changed about Levi in that period of time.

His voice was not one of those things. He still had the same gruff, angry undertones that he'd always carried with him, the same course language and crude tongue that would put any sailor to shame. And yet, it was strangely relieving for her to hear his voice again, after she had been certain that was something she'd never experience again.

"I need your help, Levi," she said, her voice soft and desperate.

A small pause.

'You need my help," he repeated. It was not a question, but a statement. "Seventeen years where the most contact you've bothered having with me is a text telling me what Mikasa's damn kagune looks like, and you want my help."

"Yes." Ryoko tried to keep her voice calm.

"You're a fucking joke," he deadpanned.

Dread began to gnaw at the edges of the female ghoul's mind. "Levi, please-"

"I'm not sure what the hell kind of reaction you expected from me, but I'm not going to lift a finger to help either of you. If I remember correctly, you both believe that I'm too rash for my own good. Is that not what you said?"

"Le-"

"You're boring me," he cut her off, his voice as flat as ever. "You have three seconds to gain my attention, or I'm hanging this damn phone up."

"It's about Mikasa!" she finally shouted back, praying that would get him to actually let her speak.

Another beat of silence.

"What about Mikasa?" he finally grunted.

Warmth began to flood her heart, as she let out a small sigh of relief. She had done it. Levi was going to hear her out. "Mikasa is in prison. Ghoul prison, that is."

Levi made a sound that was somewhere between a growl and a sigh of sheer aggravation. "You're going to have to be more specific than that. The Doves have prisons all over the pl-"

Levi's words were drowned out by an agonized shriek of pain coming from the other room, that even the ghoul on the other end of the phone could hear.

"What the hell was that?"

Swallowing back the lump in her throat, Ryoko tried to pretend that she wasn't completely aware that scream had been from her husband. "Listen, Levi," she said quickly, "I don't have much time. There's a Ghoul Investigator in the house, and your father is fighting him. We don't know how Mikasa got arrested, but we do know where she is. She's imprisoned in Karanes, the detention center in Shinganshina. After a few more seconds of silence, Ryoko could feel herself panicking again. "Levi?" she repeated, to make sure he heard her.

"Yeah, yeah," he grunted. "Look, I can't promise you anything, but I'll see what I can do for her. if Mikasa's anything like she was when she was a kid, she's not made for a detention center. They get pretty damn rough."

At his word's, Ryoko could feel tears filling her own eyes, born from nothing but sheer, uncontrollable relief. "Thank you, Levi," she whispered, so overcome with her emotions that she could barely speak.

"Was there anything else you wanted?"

Ryoko was about to tell him no, but that was when a figure filled the doorway to the kitchen. Grisha was standing there, looking a bit beaten up - there were gaping holes in his coat that were distinctly crystal-shaped. He must have torn them out. In addition to the scars from her husband's crystals, there were numerous wounds on various places on his body. Even so, he was very much alive, and as he approached her, the spiked quinque was absorbing blood from the ghoul it had just killed.

"Yes," she whispered, taking a step back from Grisha as he closed in on her. "I just wanted to let you know that your father and I never stopped loving you, Levi. You were always my son, and I'm sorry that it took this for me to try to contact you again. I hope you can forgive us someday."

With that, she dropped the phone, not waiting for a reply, and it shattered as she jumped up at the Investigator.

* * *

As the line went dead, Levi found himself feeling far less emotion than he thought he should have been feeling upon hearing what he knew was his mother's final moments. Leaning back in his chair, he closed his eyes, a groan escaping his lips. The 38-year-old ghoul hadn't spoken to his parents since he was 21 - almost two decades of his life he'd been forgotten by them, not a word spoken between them. Nothing but a string of unanswered texts from his mother that she'd sent him over the years, and almost all of them was about his younger sister.

_We're living in Shinganshina now._

_Mikasa brought her kagune out for the first time today. It looks a lot like your father's._

_Mikasa graduated high school today._

_Mikasa's studying medicine._

It was like his mother knew that Mikasa was the only thing between himself and the two of them that Levi still gave half a fuck about, and Ryoko was more than sure to keep him updated about how she'd been getting along in life. Mikasa had been a tiny little thing the last time he'd seen her - bright-eyed and curious and she looked up to him like her was idol, treating him with all the unconditional love she loved her entire family with.

Some idol he turned out to be.

"Levi?"

The short ghoul opened his eyes to look at his wife, who was watching him with a curious expression on her face. Hanji was an enigma that came barreling into Levi's life very abruptly. If anyone had told him seventeen years ago that he'd be one day settled down with and married to a goddamned human of all things, he would called them fucking insane, and yet here they were.

He grunted in response, prompting her to continue talking.

"Who was that?" She looked at him from over the top of a paper she was glancing at, her sepia eyes magnified by glasses.

"Does it matter to you?" he grumbled to her, which got a snort of laughter from the brunette.

"Whoever it was, they clearly pissed you off. Not even you usually answer phone calls with 'what the hell do you want?'."

"It was my mother," he deadpanned, and the small grin on Hanji's face quickly vanished. "Turns out that Mikasa might have gotten both of our parents killed, and now she's locked up by the Doves."

"Did she say where?"

"Karanes."

At those words, Hanji's eyes lit up. "Karanes? Really? That place is incredibly secure. What the hell did your sister do to book a room in that particular hotel?"

"Why the hell are you giving me that look?" Levi asked instead, ignoring her question as he had no idea what the answer was himself.

"I'm thinking it's been a long time since we've raided a prison."

"The last time we raided a prison, we were burdened with the duo of hell that is Springer and Braus. They insisted on joining us and we haven't had a backup food supply ever since then."

"Oh, they're not that bad."

"You're not the one whose squad was enlightened with their presence."

Hanji snorted. "At least they work well together."

"Yeah, when they're not spouting puns, laughing at jokes only they can understand, and giving each other codenames on missions."

Hanji stood up, moving toward the doorway to their living room, but she stopped to wave her hand over Levi's head. He just glared at her, demanding an explanation, to which she shrugged. "I was blowing away the little storm cloud hanging over your head. Clearly, the issue is the bug up your ass, but I can't do much to help you there, I'm afraid. You'll need to seek professional help for butt bugs."

She stuck her head in the entryway, looking at the young brown-haired figure lounging out on the coach, 3DS in hand, a small scowl twisting her face. "Hey, Petra, your father and I are going to step out for a second. Do you need anything?"

She shook her head. Satisfied, Hanji backed out into the dining room, grabbing her own coat from a rack before tossing Levi his.

"Where the hell are we going, exactly?" he asked her.

Hanji fixed him in a firm glare when she finally looked up at him from attempting to stomp her heel down into a pair of shoes without her hands. "We are going to talk to Erwin."

Levi didn't budge. "About what?"

"About getting your sister out of jail."

Levi returned her stare, his face deadpan. "Did I ever say I wanted to go through that kind of bullshit for her? I haven't even seen her since she was a kid. We're not even close." Hanji tossed a pair of shoes his way, which landed on the table in front of him. "I'm not cleaning that up."

"Get off your ass. We're helping your sister, whether you want to or not."

Levi finally stood up, and begrudgingly started the process of dressing himself before Hanji led him into the bitter February air outside their house.

"You try so hard to act like a hardass, but I know you have a soft spot for that girl."

Levi just grunted in response. He wouldn't call his feelings toward Mikasa a "soft spot" - he just felt that she was a victim of circumstance when Levi had his falling out with their parents. She had only been seven years old at the time, so obviously she only partially stood what was happening. In that sense, Levi had no qualms with Mikasa, and he had sometimes hoped that she'd feel the same way when she got older, but Mikasa was twenty-four now, and she still hadn't even tried to contact him. God knew what she even thought of him by now.

* * *

 

"It's about my sister."

Levi was sitting in the kitchen of the small house Erwin lived within by himself, staring at him from across a table. Levi's legs were crossed, his arms folded as he jumped rather abruptly into the topic of this secret relative he had that he had made no attempt to mention in front of Erwin in the past. Hanji was the only one who knew Mikasa even existed, so the reaction Erwin gave his didn't especially shock him.

Erwin's blond eyebrow arched, as he finally looked up at Levi from the document sitting on the table in front of him. "You have a sister?"

Levi ignored him. "I got a call from my mother a few minutes ago-"

"You have a mother?"

"Would you kindly shut the hell up and let me talk?" Levi snapped, fixing the taller man in his characteristic irritated glare, which earned him a snort of laughter.

"Sorry. You just have never spoken about a family of any sort outside of Hanji and Petra, so that really came out of nowhere."

"Of course I have a mother," Levi deadpanned. "Where the hell did you think I came from?"

"I assumed she was dead. Either that, or you were just manifested by negative emotions that took the form of a living thing."

"If that was supposed to be a joke, I strongly suggest you don't quit your day job."

Erwin held up his hand in mock offense, like he felt personally attacked by what Levi said. "If we're done insulting my sense of humor with your lack therefore of, what did you want to say about your sister?"

Levi glared back at him. "She got herself captured."

"By the CCG?"

"Obviously."

Erwin just looked back at him silently. "And?" he finally prompted, to which Levi shrugged.

"I have no fucking idea. I got a call from my mother after not hearing a word from them for almost twenty years that there were Ghoul Investigators breaking down their door, and that Mikasa apparently was what got the Doves on their asses in the first place. She said Mikasa was arrested and she's being held somewhere in Karanes. I couldn't even tell you why, I haven't even seen the kid since she was seven years old."

There was a few seconds of silence before Erwin spoke again. "If they took the trouble to arrest her, there must have been a reason for it."

"They're racist shitheads? That's probably a good enough reason."

A small smile turned the blond's lips upward. "I'm sure that's something to do with it, but I was more referring to the fact that the CCG rarely goes through the trouble of capturing ghouls alive when they can kill them just as easily." His brow furrowed. "There has to have been a reason that they chose to take her alive."

Levi shrugged. "Like I said, I have no idea. I haven't seen her since she was a kid." More silence, but Levi could recognize the look on Erwin's face, like his mind was over-complicating things and he was getting something in his head. "What the hell are you thinking?" he deadpanned.

"Being born with multiple Rc types is a trait that runs in your family, right?"

Levi shrugged again. "On my father's side of the family at least. He had an ukaku bikaku fusion, and his brother had one too. My mother was a singular rinkaku, so I got a mix of both of theirs. I got a text from her one time that said Mikasa's kagune looked similar to our father's, so I'm assuming she got his."

Erwin hummed in response, still deep in thought. "It's not very common knowledge among the CCG that possessing more than one Rc type without committing cannibalism is something that can occur naturally. It's so rare that it flies under their radar most of the time." He paused to give Levi a small ghost of a smile. "Of course, then you have special cases like you."

Levi's eyebrow raised slightly. "Are you trying to say something?"

"Just that you are one of the most broken creatures to have ever graced the earth. I was a first-class Investigator long before I met you, Levi, and I never saw a ghoul with three kagunes in my life until you came along."

"I didn't have three kagunes when we met," he muttered.

Hanji, who had been sitting off to the sit quietly listening to the conversation, snorted in laughter. "Back then, you thought kakujas were just a legend. The idea of a ghoul being able to develop a second kagune from cannibalism is pretty terrifying, especially for a ghoul that was born with two kagunes in the first place. And yet here you are, in all your three-kagune terror."

"Levi," Erwin prompted, and the ghoul shifted his attention back to the blond man, "are you fairly certain that your sister has a kagune like yours?"

"I have no idea," he deadpanned. "Probably?"

"If she does," Erwin continued, "she could be a powerful ally for us."

"If Mikasa has two kagunes, you're not the only one that's going to see worth in her," Hanji said darkly. "We'll need to act quickly if we're going to save her, or Rod Reiss will try and get his hands on her."

Levi let out a snort.

"Over my dead body."


	10. Undisclosed Desires

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: A couple things here, real quick. To those of you familiar with Tokyo Ghoul, you might have recognized the name I used for Mikasa's mother. When coming up with a name for her, I just went through a list of female Japanese names until I found one I liked. I knew the name Ryoko was familiar to me in a way, but I couldn't remember why. I realized a few hours after posting it that Ryoko was the name for Hinami's mother in Tokyo Ghoul. I'm not going to change it because I liked the name for her, but note that this was 100% unintentional and an oversight on my part, not some kind of parallel (despite the fact that Hinami's mother was also killed by the CCG lmao).  
> The other thing is that at the time this chapter went up, we knew basically nothing about the nature of ghoul prisons in Tokyo Ghoul. And when I say "nothing", I mean nothing. We don't know what imprisoned ghouls are fed, how often they're taken out of their cells, how frequently they've given Rc suppressants or how long they last, what the higher security cells even look like, how long on average a ghoul is left alive before being killed, how the kagune is forced out when they do kill them, and the list goes on and on. Because of this, as we move forward, a lot of this will be interpretation-based, and might become incorrect as Tokyo Ghoul advances as a series. Regardless of if you're unfamiliar with Tokyo Ghoul or not, take some of this with a grain of salt, because a lot of it will be things that aren't confirmed in canon.

When Armin and guard accompanying him entered Mikasa's cell, she was curled up in a small section of her bed, staring ahead silently.  
Trying to remain impartial to Mikasa's situation was proving much more difficult than Armin would have cared to admit. He knew it was necessary, though - as much as it pained him to leave her to her own misery within that cell, he couldn't let on that he had any sort of emotional ties to her. At least, not publicly. When he had another chance to stop and visit her, he would, but he had to be careful about it. He had to be subtle. It was considered highly unusual for a ghoul to be frequently visited, especially by someone who didn't have custody rights to the ghoul in question. Mikasa was a bit of a different case in that regard, since Grisha had claimed rights over her and promptly handed her fate over to the researchers in the laboratory. Really, they were allowed to do whatever the hell they wanted to do with her according to what Grisha said, and Mikasa was beyond lucky that Armin was ultimately the one in charge of that.

Being the lead researcher had its perks in situations like this.

It also meant that he had to be very careful and, more importantly, emotionally detached. Mikasa was there for a reason, and if he was going to keep up this facade that he wasn't deeply disturbed by the idea of using his friend as an object of study, he couldn't shove that aside. Armin supposed it was fortunate that he had a long history of controversy with his positive views of ghouls, and was seen as a bit of an oddity among the ranks of the CCG with his tendencies to treat the imprisoned ghouls as human beings rather than stupid monsters.

That was where Armin fundamentally differed from the bulk majority of the other people on the force. He had joined the more scientific side so he would have the chance to learn more about ghouls, both to learn about the differences between their two species, and with the faint hope of some day finding a way for their species' to coexist, as Armin firmly believed that their current system for dealing with ghouls was deeply flawed. Some ghouls had to be destroyed. That was inevitable. There were millions of cases of ghouls all over the planet that killed for the thrill, and they made no attempt to even pretend to see humans as anymore than livestock. As far as his colleagues were concerned, there was no such thing as a "good" ghoul. A ghoul was a ghoul, and a ghoul had to be neutralized, and that was something Armin refused to accept.  
He had seen firsthand that ghouls were no different than people, that they felt emotions as genuine, as raw and as real as any human being. He had seen all extremes from them. Anger and bitterness, sure. That was to be expected. But Armin had also witnessed sadness and loneliness, despair and hopelessness, fear and desperation, he had watched ghouls be tortured for information, cry and scream in nothing but sheer agony when subjected to cruel experiments that served to make them more useful to the Ghoul Investigators upon death more than they taught him anything.

A lot of the time, ghouls who were especially miserable or depressed would attempt to kill themselves through starvation, but that simply wasn't possible. If pushed to a certain point of hunger, ghouls completely lost themselves. Primal, animalistic instincts completely overtook the minds of even the most levelheaded ghouls. It sent them into a feeding frenzy. There had been cases of hungry ghouls turning on their own friends and family while in this state, and so the prisoners would eventually cave and eat the food laid out in front of them.

And so they were forced to exist in misery until the CCG decided that their usefulness had been exhausted, then they were scheduled for 'disposal', as it was called.  
In several ways, Armin had become numb to their plight, but that didn't mean he agreed with what happened. Watching Mikasa's breakdown the other night had only served to solidify his belief that killing or imprisoning ghouls indiscriminately was wrong, but there was little Armin could do to change a system that had been in place for decades. All he could do for Mikasa was to keep an eye on her mental state and address it as needed. But even then, there was a limit to what he could do for her. Eventually, he'd run out of excuses for keeping her alive, and when that happened...

He didn't want to think about it.

Rather, Armin shifted his attention to the matter at hand, and the entire reason he was having such a hard time pretending that he didn't know her:

Mikasa looked dead.

She look completely and totally dead.

Not sad or bitter or even angry, but just dead.

Her eyes were blank, dark, lifeless - as if the soul had been sucked from them, as if she had lost all ability to even experience emotions other than emptiness. Even as the door to her cell opened and they filled the space of her cell, Mikasa made no movement to so much as acknowledge she had noticed them, despite staring straight ahead.  
It had always been second nature for Mikasa to withdraw into herself when she was upset. It was a tendency of hers that was so ingrained into her personality that it was almost impossible to get through to her if the feelings were negative enough, though they rarely ever got to that point. She was generally a pretty happy person; quiet, maybe, but happy. Seeing her shut down the other day even before his eyes had made Armin apprehensive, but looking at the utter lack of anything that were in her eyes right now escalated that apprehension to fully formed dread.

She was far, far worse off than he had originally thought. Had she even moved from that spot curled up in her bed since Armin had left her two nights ago? It seemed unlikely. For some reason, another thought crossed his mind and Armin felt his own gaze shift to the chair resting in front of the glass window at the front of the cell, which was holding a pitcher of water. As the guard approached Mikasa, the blond slowly stepped toward the makeshift table, the grimace on his face only deepening as he saw that she hadn't touched it. There was no way she wasn't thirsty, so why hadn't she been drinking? Truth be told, Armin was positive he knew the answer to that question, but he didn't want to think about that.

"Armin?" The sudden voice of the guard snapped him out of him thoughts.

He looked up. "Hm?"

"I asked you when you wanted us to start."

Armin shrugged, glancing back at the pitcher of water. "She hasn't been drinking, it seems."

The burly man said nothing; he merely grabbed the large pitcher of water and approached Mikasa with it in hand. Armin was likewise silent as the guard grabbed Mikasa roughly by the front of her gown and yanked her to a sitting position on the edge of her bed.

"Drink," he grunted, holding the basin of water to her dry lips. At first, the liquid trailed down her face, as she refused to open her mouth. The guard let out an aggravated growl and slapped her harshly across the face. A small whimper accompanied the sound of the blow as she recoiled heavily. "Drink," he repeated, and Mikasa finally allowed him to dump some of the water down her throat. He continued to force her to drink until half the container was gone and the lack of air had her coughing into the remaining liquid. Finally, he lifted it away from her mouth, glaring at the ghoul as she continued to wheeze like she had been half-drowned. Once she had managed to catch her breath, the pitcher was placed up against her lips once more.

"I don't need anym-" Mikasa started to say, but her protests were cut off by being thrown down against the bed, as the guard keeled over her, forcing her jaw open with his fingers digging into the flesh of the sides of her mouth. For several more seconds, Mikasa drank the rest of the pitcher in weak gulps. She was gasping and coughing again by the time the container had been emptied.

Armin swallowed a lump in his throat that had formed while watching the brutal display play out, as he was aware that he was very much to blame for it. He didn't want Mikasa damaging her health, but watching that guard partially drown her hadn't been very high on his list of things he wanted to witness.

"If you want to drink at your own pace, don't give me a reason to force it," the guard told Mikasa her, his voice cold as she tried to catch her breath. "If I catch you skipping drinks again, I'll personally shove an entire gallon of animal piss down your goddamned throat. Are we clear on that?" Mikasa just nodded, and the guard grabbed her wet gown again. "On your feet, Ackerman." Mikasa silently obeyed, her eyes remaining fixed on the ground in front of her. She didn't make a sound in protest, even as the prison worker pulled her hands behind her back and fixed a pair of handcuffs around her wrists.

Mikasa willingly moved forward with no goading from the guard behind her, as she was lead out of her cell and back up the long spiraling staircase that wound it's way the entire length of the detention center. The room she was eventually steered toward was familiar to her - it was the same room where they had administered her Rc suppressants just a couple days ago. That in itself was bringing back very unpleasant memories and a strong feeling of unease, which didn't go away, even as she saw who was standing near the table she had been restrained down to.

Mikasa remembered Marco Bodt well from high school, as he was one of the few classmates of theirs that hadn't left Shiganshina upon graduation to pursue bigger and better things. He and Jean were the only ones left that Mikasa remembered knowing particularly well. Seeing him was a bit of a surprise to her, but Marco clearly didn't share that sentiment. He just smiled at her in casual greeting. Mikasa could only assume that he'd been told her identity prior to this moment, because he seemed completely unperturbed that an old friend of his was in fact a ghoul.

After the guard left them, Marco gestured toward the table in the middle of the room. "Sit down there, please." Despite the situation they were both in, Marco was giving her a small smile. Mikasa wasn't sure she could recall a time where that particular boy wasn't smiling. She wasn't sure he was physically capable of frowning, let alone getting angry. Mikasa's eyes followed him as he moved over to a cupboard over a counter to her immediate left, where he pulled out a syringe. The second she saw that, Mikasa let out an outward shudder, as the memory of getting a needle jammed into her eyeball was still very much vivid in her memory. Specifically, the pain that accomplished having said needle jammed into her eyeball.

Marco frowned, looking back over to her. "Is there something wrong?" There was a moment of silence, before Marco noticed how wearily her eyes were focused on the syringe in his hand. "Oh, don't worry about that," he said, his voice almost annoyingly chipper and far too nonchalant for Mikasa's liking. "This won't hurt nearly as much as the Rc suppressants did. Because of the suppressants, your skin is no more resistant than mine is right now, so I don't need to stick you anywhere especially painful. The arm will do fine." Marco began the process of preparing whatever fluid had to go into the injection as he continued to talk. "This won't burn either. It's no worse than a flu shot." He paused for a moment, before snorting to himself. "Though I suppose you'd have no idea what that feels like, would you? It's not that bad. I haven't cried getting a shot since I was like thirteen...that one was pretty bad." Marco cringed to himself, lost in his rambling memory for a moment. He aspirated the plunger on the needle a couple times, before he seemed satisfied and moved back to her side. "Alright, we're all set."

Before he could grab her arm to stick the needle into her body, Mikasa finally managed to speak to him. "Marco."

"Yeah?"

"What is that, exactly?" Mikasa tried to keep her voice steady, but the sad look Marco gave her told the ghoul that she'd done a pretty poor job of keeping her anxiety out of her tone.

"It's a sedative. It acts as a tranquilizer, basically. It'll lock your muscles up so you can't move while we're examining your kagune." Marco didn't smile that time, possibly realizing that it wouldn't have been very appropriate. "It's for everyone's safety, including yours."

Mikasa didn't answer him, but she wasn't sure if she liked the idea of being immobilized while people were playing with her kagune any more than she liked being stuck in the eye with a needle and then having molten lava injected into her bloodstream. "We're not allowed to use sedatives that prevent pain on ghouls, but this is the next best thing we can do for you."

"I'm honored," Mikasa deadpanned before she could stop herself.  
Marco fixed her in a somewhat piteous look before he gently took her arm. "Lay down and try to make yourself comfortable."

Suppressing a sigh, Mikasa obliged, not really seeing a point in fighting what was inevitable. She supposed that she was just lucky that Marco apparently trusted her enough to not want to restrain her like she had been the night she had been brought here, but that didn't do a whole lot to calm her growing apprehension as she laid down and Marco grabbed her arm. Mikasa felt a slight prick when he stuck her with the needle, but it was so faint that she hardly noticed it was there. Almost immediately, her body felt...off. She could still move, but she felt heavy, like she was terribly exhausted.

Nothing else was said between Mikasa and Marco, as she just closed her eyes, waiting for the drug to fully take over her body. Gradually, Mikasa could feel the sensation of heaviness change, slowly morphing into something more rigid and stiff. Mikasa wasn't long how long she laid there, the only sound accompanying her in the room was the steady breathes that caused her chest to rise and fall, and the background noises Marco was making as he moved around the room in preparation while waiting for the drugs to fully kick in. It got to a point where all Mikasa could do was move her eyes around. Marco would step in and out of her line of vision, doing things Mikasa didn't fully understand the purpose of; the only thing he did that made sense to her was when he laid out x-ray images across a wall.

Suddenly, she could heard the sound of a door opening, and numerous footsteps approaching the front of the room. A group of four men and two women in addition to Marco were gathering by the screen of x-rays, all of them dressed in white scrubs and lab coats. The only figure Mikasa recognized was Armin, but he wasn't looking her way.

"She should be ready by now," Marco said. "I gave her the sedatives about ten minutes ago."

"She give you any trouble?" one of the women asked, to which Marco shook his head.

"Nah. I explained everything to her and I talked her through it instead of holding her down and shoving a needle with unknown effects into her body. You should try it sometime."

The girl snorted. "You're starting to sound Armin."

"I am neutral in this conversion," Armin muttered from where he was standing off to the side, briefly glancing up from a clipboard in his hands. "Don't drag me into it." The girl slid a pair of white latex gloves over her hand - an action that was mimicked by the rest of the scientists that had so far remained silent.

"Which of the kakahous are we going to stimulate first?" one of the men asked, and Armin looked up again. "As you can see," he said, gesturing toward the set of x-rays on the wall, "this ghoul has three: two by her shoulderblades like most ukakus so, but she also has one by her tailbone. They don't appear to be attached, so we might have to bring them out one at a time."

Armin's brows furrowed as he looked down at whatever document he was looking over. "As far as we know, she can't control which of the Rc types she brings out. They may be separate, but according at the reports, she's never shown being able to leave one within her body while the other is out. She favors use of her tail, but it always seems to be accompanied by the wings."

"There's only one way to know for sure," another voice said.

Armin nodded. "Go get it ready."

The man that spoke moved out of Mikasa's field of vision, and Mikasa couldn't help but feel apprehensive about the meaning of those words. She had no fathomable clue what they mean they said that they wanted to stimulate her kakahou, but she was certain that it was something that she wanted little to do with. Just the mere sound of it had her internally cringing.

"Start with the tailbone," Armin finally said. His voice sounded flat, but Mikasa know him well enough to detect the hesitation in his tone. "If we need to go to the shoulderblade we will." Mikasa got a brief glance of the man who had previously stepped away, as he took back his position by Armin's side, only this time he was holding a syringe with an incredibly, ridiculously long needle. A lump formed in her throat just looking at it, because it was at least ten inches long. Mikasa barely had time to process her newfound fear, when she was suddenly forced into a kneeling position by two of the scientists while a third one grasped the bottom of her prison gown and tore it off over her head.  
Every bone in her body screamed in prideful humiliation at the sudden action, but she couldn't do anything to prevent it - she couldn't even open her jaw to verbally protest.

Before the people holding her upright allowed her dead body to slump back down onto the table, they roughly turned her around and dropped her, so that she fell heavily on her stomach. A soft groan was produced deep in her throat, but she could do very little else but stare straight ahead and wait to see what they would do to her next. Someone's hands gently tilted her so she was laying on her side. Mikasa's eyes looked upward, where she saw Armin reaching in toward her chest, a stethoscope already in his ears. He probed her chest with the cold tool for a few seconds, before he found a heartbeat.

He looked to someone over to his left. "Put it here." Somebody else reached over her head to attach a heart rate monitor to her chest where Armin had found a beat. One of the other people made a comment about how they were wasting time, which earned him a very pointed glare from the blond. "Do you know what happened to the last ghoul we did this to?"

No answer. Armin's glare just hardened, as he waited for a response.

"I don't think I was around then," he finally muttered.

"In that case, keep your damn opinions to yourself, he snapped. "You have no clue what you're even complaining about. I'll tell you what happened: he went into shock we when stuck Rc cells into his kakahou." Armin paused to lay Mikasa back down on her stomach gently. "These ghouls are under numerous conflicting drugs. They may be hardy, but you can't completely cut off their Rc cell supply, then inject thousands of them directly into the kakahou without preparing for adverse effects. We didn't consider that last time and that's not a mistake I'm making again. I'm wasting more time having to explain this to you than we wasted setting up the damn heart rate monitor."

Throughly abashed, the man who made his highly unwanted comment fell silent, though not before Armin said one last thing to him.

"I realize you probably think ghouls are monsters, but the ghouls we are given to work with are weakened significantly, to the point that most of them are no stronger than a person. You can't ever forget that."

As Armin finally stopped chewing the man out, the the steady beeping of the machine was the only noise in the room for a few seconds. Mikasa could suddenly feel somebody's latex-covered finger rest on her tailbone, uncomfortably close to an extremely intimate part of her body. However, her discomfort quickly jumped from nervous indignation to pain, as she felt the needle pierce the skin just above her pantyline. It wasn't a quick little prick like the sedative had been - Mikasa could literally feel the oversized needle sliding into her body, getting increasingly more painful with every tiny amount of pressure the person holding the syringe applied to force it deeper and deeper into her tailbone. Tears silently flowed down her face, but no cries of pain could pass her lips. The frequency of the beeps from the monitor spiked the deeper the needle penetrated her body, but not to the point where it seemed to alarm any of the scientists in the room.

Mikasa willed herself to ignore the pain by concentrating on her own breathing, trying in vain to keep it even and not heavy as the needle pressed ever deeper into her body. After several more agonizing seconds, the pushing stopped.

"I've hit the kakahou," the man that was holding the syringe finally said. "Keep an eye on her." After a few seconds in which Mikasa was assuming that he was actually injecting the fluid into her body, she suddenly felt him rip the needle out completely in one fluid jerk, which caused a loud whimper of pain to be produced from somewhere deep within her throat.

Seconds later, she felt a very familiar, far less painful stab in both her shoulderblades and her tailbone, as her kagune emerged very much of it's own accord. Her tail immediately slumped over sideways to the left of her body, as she couldn't hold it upright any more than she could move her arm. She could feel her wings at least penetrate her skin, but they didn't fully form; she could feel that they hadn't developed past the little nubs that remained after her she had lost them in her fight with Reiner and Bertoldt. That made her more anxious than she knew she should have felt in her current situation; really, her wings not regenerating yet should have been the least of her concern. But she couldn't help but feel that something was wrong. Why hadn't her wings fully healed? Kagunes healed themselves after taking damage in fights - they could regenerate just as well as any other part of a ghoul's body.

Her confusion seemed to be shared by the scientists in the room, as they all looked at the pitiful remains of her ukaku.

"I thought this thing was supposed to have full-sized wings."

"She does."

"Are you seeing something I'm not? Those don't look like any wings I've ever seen before."

Mikasa suddenly felt a new level of violation, as one of the people standing around her grabbed one of her wings between three fingers, twisting it in their hand to get a better look. Despite the fact that she knew it would be pointless, she felt herself trying to move her body just to pull away from the very alien sensation of someone actually touching her kagune, as if they were inspecting a broken arm. It was so bizarre, it felt so completely wrong.

"Look at how it's shaped and compare this one to the other one." The voice that spoke was the woman who had been fighting with Marco earlier. "This looks like it's been torn." She suddenly took hold of Mikasa's other wing in the same manner, rather oblivious to the ghoul's growing discomfort. "And if you look at this one," her finger brushed along the edge of her kagune, "the edges are much smoother, almost as if it's been cut off."

"She was pretty roughed up when they first brought her in the other night," Marco commented.

"I can guarantee you she lost the kagune defending herself against the Investigators that brought her in," the woman replied. "She lost it, and it hasn't had a chance to regenerate because she's been under Rc suppressants ever since then."

"We should put some Rc cells in her shoulderblades. It'll speed up the regeneration."

Armin looked up from the heart rate monitor he had been watching very carefully, to look Mikasa in the face for a brief moment. Mikasa had no way to communicate the true extent of the pain she was undoubtedly in outside of the emotion in her eyes, the way her cheeks were both stained by a stream of tears that had slowly fallen the whole way back down her face. Once she heard the people standing over her discuss subjecting her to a second one of those injections, her eyes slammed shut and fresh tears began to pool in the corner of her eyeballs, gradually joining the small basin that was starting to form under her chin.

Guilt began to gnaw at Armin's chest. He was well aware that he was not directly to blame for what was happening, that this was a part of the show that he had to put on, but watching his friend be subjected to the pain the likes of which she was experiencing while he did nothing to help her was proving more difficult that he would have ever imagined it would be. As if she were reading his mind, Mikasa opened her tearful eyes, looking directly at him in desperation, begging him for help. Armin's eyes shifted to the somewhat irregular, stress-induced beating of her heart on the monitor.

"I'll go get another injection ready."

At those words, the beeping of the machine accelerated far past what it had been moments ago, almost immediately spiking to an alarming rate. Panic had taken over Mikasa's face as her eyes slammed shut again, not being able to bare even looking up at her friend any longer. After a brief glance forward to make sure none of the researchers were watching them, Armin gently placed a hand on one of her cheeks for just a moment. Mikasa's eyes opened again and she looked back up at him.

"Don't do that," Armin finally said, looking up from his friend's terrified face to the small group of people standing around her. All of them in turn focused their full attention on Armin, their expressions varying from mildly curious to openly exasperated, though none of them verbally protested his order. "It's not necessary," Armin continued, his voice confident, realizing that they all wanted a more specific explanation. "She's getting too stressed out. We'll risk her health if we don't give her a break."

"A break?" one of them echoed. "You're kidding me, right?"

"You can't pump more Rc cells into her body right now," Armin snapped back. "There's too much of an excess as it is. We'll keep her off the suppressants for the night and wait for her kagune to regenerate on it's own. There's no point in rushing things, especially given the state she was in when she was detained. We have plenty of time to look at her kagune, but we can't do anything with it in the state it is." To Armin's relief, the tension in the room was starting to lessen, as they seemed to see his point. "That's my final word on the matter."

* * *

 

Mikasa had no idea how long she was still unable to move before she finally began to regain control of her muscles. She had been dragged back to her cell and sat on the bed, but being completely unable to adjust her position had succeeded in nothing but adding to her stiff discomfort. It started out as very basic; her fingers were the first to budge, and it slowly spread to her entire body, until she could finally force herself to sit upright. Wearily, she stood up, stretching her legs. They felt like they were made of gelatin and the feeling of the metal floor of her prison was cold and uncomfortable under her bare feet, but she was just grateful to be able to move again. Though that paled in comparison to how grateful she was to Armin; she knew that he was more than aware that she could have endured a second one of those injections, but he had acted to spare her from the pain of it. As hopeless as her situation was and as lonely as she felt, it filled Mikasa's heart with the tiniest bit of encouragement that she had at least one friend on the inside looking out for her.

As if on cue, Mikasa heard the muffled sound of the door to her interrogation area open. Her head snapped upward, and she saw Armin approach the window. A small smile formed on his face when he saw that she was up and walking around. As he seated himself down on the chair on his side of the glass, he beckoned for Mikasa to join him at the glass. At first, she didn't move.

"Come on, Mikasa," he told her. "I'll come in there if I need to. Don't make this difficult. I just want to talk to you." Mikasa failed to repress a sigh and she dragged herself over to the seat directly opposite of Armin, immediately lowering her gaze to the floor in front of her.

"What happened to your kagune?"

When Mikasa finally looked up at her friend, she could tell that the question had come from his heart, not his desire for information. Armin might have worked for the CCG and he might have been a scientist tasked with studying her, but he still saw her as a friend. That was something she was eternally grateful for. When she remained silent, Armin must have interpreted that as her ignoring his question, because he sighed at her.

"Mikasa, there's no point in ignoring me. I'm not going away until you talk to me." His eyes were firm. "I'm worried about you. It's not healthy for you to just shut yourself up in your head."

"That's what happens to all the other ghouls here, isn't it?" she finally asked him, her voice flat. "What makes me so special?"

"Your longevity for starters," Armin replied without skipping a beat. "As long as I can come up with more ideas for pointless little tests, I can keep you alive for a very long time, Mikasa, but that won't do an ounce of good if you let yourself fall."

"All you're doing is prolonging something inevitable," Mikasa replied. "You can keep me alive for a year, maybe two, maybe ten, but I'm not going to get out of this prison alive. My life is numbered by days and I'm going to spend the rest of it just staring at a wall."

"Do you want to die?"

"Of course not." Mikasa's voice quickly fell to a whisper, as her gaze turned to the ground again. She found herself biting back tears, the sting of the waterworks pricking into the back of her eyes like needles. It was hard for her to even think about where her life had been only three days ago and compare it to where she was now. In one fell swoop, her entire existence had been unraveled at the seams. Of course she didn't want to die because she was a ghoul. Of course she didn't want to spend the rest of her life in a prison because she had tried to protect someone she loved deeply.

The only thing in the world the young ghoul wanted was for things to go back to how they were three days ago. She wanted to wake up in her own bed wearing her own clothes, curled up next to Eren. She wanted to be able to convince herself that Eren still cared about her. Even if he couldn't bring himself to love her anymore, Mikasa just wanted to know that he didn't despise her.

That was what she wanted, but what she wanted and the reality of the situation were two drastically different things. The fact of the matter was that she hadn't even heard from Eren since that night, and that could only leave her to confirm her worst fears. She would never be able to bring herself to regret what she had done, because she had saved his life by throwing hers away, but Mikasa would by lying to herself if she said that she didn't desperately wish that things had turned out differently than they were right now.

"Mikasa." Mikasa slowly looked back up at Armin, who was fixing her in a very sad expression. "Please don't give up hope. I know Eren-"

"I haven't even seen Eren since I fought off those other ghouls," Mikasa sighed. "He-"

"Wait," Armin suddenly cut her off, raising a hand to silence her, "other ghouls? What other ghouls?"

"That's what happened the night I was brought here," Mikasa replied softly. "Eren and I were attacked by a pair of ghouls that wanted to kill him, so I tried to protect him." Her eyes grew distant as she recalled the memory. "The one was just a typical koukaku, but the other one...his kagune was a monstrosity."

"What do you mean by that?" Armin was now learning in toward the glass, his eyes swimming in curiosity.

"It was like a second body that completely engulfed him. I couldn't figure out a way to even damage him. Then they started to gang up on me, and I didn't stand a chance. He held me down and ripped one of my wings out with nothing but his hands." Mikasa winced from the memory of the pain that caused her. "I cut the other one off."

"How did the Investigators not see them?" Armin finally asked.

Mikasa's eyes narrowed bitterly as she remembered what Reiner had said to her right before he vanished, about how they were going to leave her to face the Investigators.

"When they thought I was down, the big one let his guard down, and I was able to injure both of them, but they fled right as the CCG arrived and left me to take the fall for all the damage they've done. And here we are."

"So, let me get this straight," Armin finally said, his voice oddly harsh. "After your date, Eren was attacked by two ghouls who wanted to kill him, and you revealed yourself to protect him. You got severely injured and arrested, and you still haven't seen anything from Eren since then?"  
Mikasa nodded.

Armin stood up. "Thank you for telling me that, Mikasa."

As he turned to walk away, Mikasas face shifted to confusion. "Where are you going?"

"To have a little word with a mutual friend of ours."


	11. Deception and Disgust

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really quick, I'd like to do a quick dedication to my friend Emanuel because he's been very helpful with this fic's production from day one. Every time I need a fact checked from Tokyo Ghoul, if he doesn't know the answer, he always checks for me, and he's been the biggest part of my support group since the very beginning. I was waiting for this chapter to dedicate something to him because I know it's going to reduce him to a screaming puddle of feels. Also, alphaofdarkness on Tumblr has made a really cool fanart of Mikasa's kagune that you can see under her art tag on her Tumblr page if anyone is interested.

The first thing Eren became aware of when Armin entered their apartment was the loud crash of the front door.

The brunet raised an eyebrow and looked toward the doorway. "Everything okay, Armin?" His question was very quickly answered for him when he saw the very out-of-place scowl on Armin's face when he finally stepped into the kitchen where Eren was sitting.

Eren began to feel concerned, but that faded very abruptly when Armin made a beeline straight for him and backhanded him across the mouth with an incredible amount of force. Eren recoiled heavily from the very unexpected blow and looked at Armin, bewildered.

"What the hel-" he started to ask, but was cut out from another outburst from the blond.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!"

Eren blinked, more so from hearing a curse word actually cross Armin's lips than anything else.

"What the hell happened the night Mikasa was arrested?" the blond continued heatedly.

Eren's surprised look quickly warped into a glower. "I already told you that I don't want to talk about it." As he spoke, he moved to stand up, but Armin placed his hand on one of his shoulders, forcing Eren to remain seated.

"Oh, no, I don't think so," he snapped. "We're not playing that game this time. I want to know what the hell happened that night, and you'd better tell me the truth, Eren."

"What the hell did Mikasa tell you?" Eren asked instead.

Armin crossed his arms. "She told me that if it wasn't for her, right now, your ass would be dead. She saved your life, and you repaid her by leaving her to die in a ghoul prison. I hope you're really happy with yourself, Eren, because I can tell you that I'm sure as hell not happy with what I've been forced to do to her because it was your bright idea to have her arrested in the first place."

"If I hadn't told them to arrest her, they would have killed her on the spot!" Eren bristled back, finally standing up to face his friend. "The choices were watch her get killed, or let her get arrested."

Armin's cold expression didn't fade. "Fine. That's understandable. But why haven't you stopped by to see her since then?"

"I have nothing to say to her," Eren muttered.

The blond's eyebrow arched. "Look me in the eyes and tell me that again, why don't you?"

"She lied to me for the entire time I've known her, Armin," Eren snarled back.

"Can you blame her, Eren?" Armin's voice softened slightly. "If you talked about exterminating my species every time I went within ten feet of you, I'd probably lie to you too. You love that girl. I know you do."

"Maybe I used to."

Armin shoved him back into the kitchen table. "You do. You just proposed to her three nights ago. You were going to marry her. You might be angry, but don't let your anger cloud your judgment, Eren." Armin's eyes finally began to lose their harsh edge. "Mikasa is horrifically depressed. One of the guards had to force feed her water yesterday because she hadn't drank anything in twenty-four hours. If you don't talk to her, she's going to shut down completely."

Eren was silent for a moment, glaring at the ground. "She has you, doesn't she?" he finally asked.

"Mikasa knows that I don't hate her. But I'm not the one she needs to hear that from now, am I, Eren?" When all he got was more silence, Armin's voice got impatient again. "Go talk to her. If it wasn't for Mikasa, you'd be dead, she'd still have her family, and she'd still be free. This isn't a suggestion, this is something that you owe her."

* * *

Eren's discomfort only grew as he crossed the threshold to the interrogation area of Mikasa's cell. He hesitated, his eyes quickly resting on the wall of glass that separated him from the actual containment area. For a moment, he looked behind himself, to see Armin lingering in the doorway, arms crossed as he fixed the brunet in a very stern glare. Just the look Armin was giving him made Eren feel more irritated about the situation than he had been seconds ago.

"Don't give me that look," Eren snapped at him. "You're not my mother."

"Your mother is currently turning in her grave over how much of a bullhead her son is," Armin replied, not budging from the judgmental position. Eren's scowl deepened into a glare, but he said nothing, approaching the window and microphone.

"I don't think so," Armin suddenly said, finally moving his body away from the entrance to the cell, ignoring the look Eren fired his way. "You're going into that damn cell and I will hear no complaints about it." As he spoke, Armin produced a set of keys from his pocket and used them to open the door to the actual cell. "You're going to sit in there, and you're going to talk to her."

Eren opened his mouth to respond, but Armin turned on him in an instant.

"So help me God, Eren, I will bodily drag you in there."

"I'd like to see you try that," Eren snapped back. "You aren't exactly strong there, pal."

One of Armin's blond eyebrows arched. "I mean, your face still has an imprint of my hand on it. Keep testing me and you'll find a foot up your ass to match it."

"I'm not going into a cell with a ghoul."

Armin's glare harshened. "She's not a ghoul. She's Mikasa. She's your best friend and your fiancée and you love her, and I swear to God, Eren-"

"Alright, I get it," Eren barked back. "Just leave the fucking door open, would you? I don't want to be stuck in there."

"Of course."

Eren begrudgingly dragged himself away from the window and toward the open door. The second he stepped into the the confined area, Eren heard a door slam shut behind him. Instinctively, Eren turned around and punched the heavy steel wall with one of his fists. Fuming, he stormed over to the glass, where Armin was standing on the other side, his arms crossed.

"Armin, I love you, you're like a brother to me, and I wouldn't wish any amount of harm on you, but if you don't open this damn door right now, I'm going to use you as a meat shield the next time I see a ghoul."

"That sounds like Future Armin's problem. Because right now, all Present Armin sees is an unarmed human stuck in a cell that is designed to hold back a ghoul. Good luck on that one, friend."

"Armin, this isn't funny!"

Armin's face didn't waver from it's flat expression. "I never laughed. I am being quite serious, in fact." He began to back up away from the glass, toward the open door heading to the hallways outside. "Text me when you two have worked your shit out. You're not leaving until I'm satisfied."

"Armin, don't you dare." Eren's voice was low.

Not breaking eye contact with him, Armin stepped slowly backwards out of the interrogation area, closing the door behind him and leaving Eren with nothing else to do but turn around. Eren's eyes slowly swept the length of the rather pitifully small room that Mikasa had been stuck living within. In the corner of the room, he saw her. Mikasa was sitting upright on her bed, her knees hugged tightly against her chest, her eyes fixed on him. Her expression was tense, probably from watching how vehemently Eren had fought with Armin over even speaking to her, but it quickly faded to blankness as Eren grabbed the chair sitting in front of the glass window and pulled it over to the bed wordlessly, before sitting down so that he was facing her. Mikasa lowered her eyes to the white fabric of the edge of the gown she was wearing, and Eren stared at her.

Neither of them said a word for what felt like an eternity.

Eren couldn't help but feel the tiniest sense of relief seeing that she seemed to be alright, at least physically. The horrible injuries that she'd sustained in the fight with those other ghouls had healed completely. Still, he could see that Mikasa was far from well just by the look on her face. Her eyes were dark, lifeless, like she hadn't experienced happiness in years. It was such a stark contrast to the last time he'd seen her that it threw him off a bit, despite the anger he felt upon seeing her once again.

It was surreal, in a way - the past few days had passed him by in a turbulent blur of hundreds different thoughts and emotions, but it all came back to one conclusion: Mikasa had lied to him. For as long as they had known each other, she had tricked him and deceived him. He couldn't trust a single thing that she'd ever said to him, led him to believe. Their relationship had been built upon fallacies, and he couldn't just ignore that. Maybe if Mikasa had willingly come out and told him the truth without him having to discover it as a result of nearly being killed he would have considered forgiving her, but this?

No.

There was no forgiving this.

She didn't deserve his forgiveness.

There was too much hurt for him to merely forgive her because she looked sad.

And yet, Eren didn't hate her. That was something he was well aware of. He was angry. He was hurt. He felt betrayed. And yet, despite all that, he found himself missing her. Not having Mikasa by his side when he fell asleep every night, not hearing her laugh and playfully slap him when he said or did something stupid, not having her waiting for him to get home from work every night to greet him with a smile and a light in her eyes - it left a void in his life, a certain empty coldness in his heart that hadn't vanished until he saw her again. Mikasa had been a constant fixture in his life since he was seven years old, and having her taken from him just felt wrong.

Finally, a ghost of a sigh passed her lips, the deafening silence too uncomfortable for her to tolerate any longer.

"I'm sorry." She still couldn't bring herself to look him in the eyes.

Eren blinked at her, as anger quickly flooded to the forefront of his mind. "You're sorry?" he echoed. His face contorted into a glare that Mikasa did not meet. "I'm glad to hear that, Mikasa. Really, I am. I'll be able to rest really fucking easily knowing that you're sorry that you lied to me for thirteen years."

Silence, as Mikasa continued to stare at her bed, her fingers playing with the end of the gown.

"Did you ever plan on telling me the truth?"

Mikasa hesitated for a moment, weighing her answer over in his head. Did she tell him the truth and make him angrier, or did she lie yet again, for the hundredth time? Was there even a point in lying to him at this moment in time? Mikasa knew she was far beyond any point of return.

There was a chance he may forgive her if she lied, but what would that accomplish? Even if Eren did forgive her, what good what it do? It wouldn't change where she was, or what she had lost, and it wouldn't fix anything. At the end of the day, Mikasa was locked up because she was a ghoul. The people they thought she had killed was irreverent in the face of that one core problem: she was a ghoul, humanity believed her kind to be inherently evil, and all ghouls who were discovered and unlucky enough to not escape were eventually murdered over that fact. It didn't matter who they were, what good they had done in the world, how they had helped people and contributed to the human's world. Because that was who owned the world she lived in: humanity. It was a twisted, broken, distorted, unfair and cruel world she lived in, but it was still not hers and she was not welcomed.

That's why she was imprisoned, and why she would eventually be put to death, and nothing she said to Eren right now would change that. Filling him with more fallacies wouldn't do anything but hurt both of them more than they already were; her for knowing that she continued to deceive him when she had the chance to come clean, and him for buying into more of the lies.

"No," she finally deadpanned. She could feel the glare Eren was giving her as she kept her eyes locked firmly on her bed.

"So is there any particular reason that you did this to me?" he snapped back.

"I'm not proud that I had to lie to you," Mikasa replied. Her voice was flat. "It was unavoidable. If I had any other choice, I would have nev-"

"Why the fuck do you expect me to believe a damn word you say to me?" He folded his arms across his chest, his eyes cold.

"Because I love you." Her voice was soft.

Eren's face didn't change in the slightest, didn't show even the smallest amount of sympathy. "Do you?" he finally asked. "Do you really love me, Mikasa?"

Visibly jolted by those cruel words, Mikasa looked up and made eye contact with Eren for the first time since he had stood between her and three bloodthirsty Ghoul Investigators.

"What kind of question is that?" she finally snapped back, her own eyes fixing him in a glare.

"Considering that all I've been taught to know about ghouls since I was a boy was that they're deceitful and they mimic emotions, I really couldn't answer that one."

"You can pretend that you actually believe that, but I know it's not true."

Eren stiffened. "And how the hell would you know that?"

"Because a week ago, you came home an emotional wreck because you refused to kill an infant in cold blood!" Mikasa bristled. "You were distraught that his mother refused to fight you. Everything you every thought you knew about a ghoul's ability to experience emotions was turned on it's head, so I know you don't believe that everything I ever felt toward you was anything less than genuine." She paused for a moment, as her voice took on a less angry tone. "Whether you choose to believe me or not is entirely up to you, but I never meant to hurt you. It was never my intention."

"Good job with that."

As much as those words was like a dagger to her heart, Mikasa ignored his sarcasm. "If I didn't care about you, we wouldn't be here. What did I gain from revealing my family's secret and getting ganged up on by two ghouls who were out for blood? Nothing." Her eyes slowly shifted downward once again. "I did it for you. I could have very easily pretended I was a human, waited for the CCG to show up and fight those ghouls, and risked your life in doing so. I didn't though, and if you think my intentions came from anything but my feelings for you, you don't know me nearly as well as I thought."

"Your intentions isn't really the issue, Mikasa," Eren barked back. "You lied to me. You lied to me for a really long time, and I don't know if I can forgive that."

"I didn't expect you to forgive me."

"What did you expect, in that case?" Eren's voice was slowly losing the sharp edge it had when he first spoke to her.

Mikasa sighed, her eyes as weary and exhausted as her voice sounded. "I expected you to never want to look at me again, much less sit in here and talk to me." Her gaze dropped once more. "I thought I'd never see you again."

Eren couldn't help but feel the slightest, tiniest pang of guilt at those words, as he knew Mikasa only felt that way because of him. It made him internally cringe to think of the amount of times he had vented to her about his hatred of her kind, about they were monsters, about how badly he wished for a future where ghouls no longer existed. It was no damn wonder Mikasa had fallen into a depression.

As if reading his mind, Mikasa's gentle grey eyes slowly met his once more, tears forming in the corners of the familiar pools. "Please, just get out of here," she murmured.

He glared back to her. "Armin won't let me until we've talked this shit out."

"What is there to talk about, Eren?" Mikasa asked. "This was always the inevitable end that was bound to happen someday. The only thing we can do now is just move on." A small, grim smile spread across her face. "Go back to your life the way it always has been and forget any of this ever happened."

"What the hell do you mean by that?"

"Forget you ever met me." The small smile on her face didn't waver in the slightest, but the tears started to spill over down her cheek.

Eren blinked at her, taken aback by her words for a moment. Forget her? Yeah right. Fat chance of that. Even if he wanted to forget her, Eren knew that was literally impossible. Long before they had been lovers, they had been friends. Ever since he had first heard her seven-year-old voice crying for help, begging the monster that had cornered her in the dark alley just across the road from his home for mercy, ever since Eren had grabbed a simple butter knife from their kitchen and rushed to her side, attacking the ghoul in the eyes when he let his guard down in the face of a kid as young as he had been...they had been inseparable since that night, that simple action that had bonded them for life. They had spent an entire lifetime together and the mere idea of Mikasa asking him to just forget about her formed a lump in his throat.

"Mikasa, I can barely even remember my life before I met you," Eren replied. For half a second, he lifted his hand like he was going to touch her, but he quickly stopped himself. "I was seven years old. I've known you for most of the time I've been alive. I..." His voice trailed off.

"I know," Mikasa murmured softly, now looking downward. "If I had known then how far this was going to go, I never..."

Eren's eyes hardened ever so slightly. "Never would have what? Never would have befriended me? Do you wish you had never met me?"

When Mikasa looked up at him again, her eyes were so stricken, so filled with regret, that it even took him by surprise. "Eren, I will be grateful that I met you with my dying breath. I don't want you to think that will ever change. I will never regret you being a part of my life."

"Even after all this?" His voice softened ever so slightly.

She nodded. "Especially after all this. What happened was the fault of nobody but myself. I chose to do what I did. I knew what the consequences would be. The position I'm in was my own doing and I don't regret it for a second. If I hadn't acted against those ghouls..." Her voice trailed off.

"I'd be dead," Eren answered for her and Mikasa adverted her eyes downward yet again. "I'd be dead, and you'd be free."

"I never would have been able to live with myself if I hadn't done something." Her voice was barely a whisper, her eyes still locked on the floor in front of her. "Freedom is a very subjective concept. My body might have been free, but my mind never would be. The guilt would have eaten me alive." For a second Eren thought he heard her sniffle, but it was so brief that he wasn't sure. "Even now, what good would freedom do me? Where would I go? Who do I even have left?" Tears slowly began to slide down her face. "I'd have to run, change my name, start a new life in a new place with new people, and the very idea of that is just exhausting." A deep, shaky sigh escaped her lips. "If I need to completely restart from here, I'm better off living out the rest of my life in this cell with at least some shred of familiarity. I don't want a new life. I want to return to my old life."

"You know that's not possible."

"I know." Mikasa met his eyes again, tears still slipping down her cheek and onto her lap. "And I don't deserve it, either. Not after what I've done. I've done nothing but hurt you, I am the reason my parents are dead." Mikasa reached up to wipe some tears away with the heel of her hand. "But most of all, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything. I never meant to hurt you, Eren, I..." Her voiced faded for a second. "All I wanted was to be by your side. It's all I ever wanted and yet..." As the words fell from her lips, Mikasa bowed her head forward, small sobs wracking her body as she refused to look at him.

Subconsciously, Eren reached his hand out toward her, and was mere centimeters from his fingers making contact with her skin. his teeth gritted as he stopped himself, refused to allow himself to have any closer contact with her than he already was. His fingers balled up into a fist, which he lowered to his side. Mikasa continued to tremble.

"And yet you're a ghoul," Eren finally said.

For several seconds, the only sounds that came from Mikasa were sniffles and shaky breaths, as she tried to recompose herself. Finally, she looked upward to face him again. The tears streaming down her face had grown silent, but they were still very much present.

"That's always been the problem, hasn't it?" A small sad smile formed on her lips. "There's no such thing as a happy ending for a ghoul." She sniffed again. "Maybe people are right about us. Maybe we are just monsters that have no right to exist."

"I don't think you're a monster."

"My family was never." Her voice fell to a murmur. "My parents tried to see the good in everyone. They tried to love and respect people as they would another ghoul." Mikasa's eyes grew distant, as she was lost deep in whatever memories she was remembering of her family. "We survived by scavenging kills left behind by other ghouls. Sometimes we even ate other ghouls. But we never killed. I can never remember my parents hunting down a human in my entire life." She reached up to wipe tears away again. "At the end of the day, that didn't matter, did it? They were still killed in cold blood because people are terrified of us. The fact that I've been accused of killing numerous Investigators is what saved my life, isn't it?

"I didn't want them to kill you," Eren finally replied. "That's what saved your life. Those Investigators, my father, even...they were more than prepared to kill you, despite your reputation." Eren's eyes narrowed in anger at the memory, though he wasn't exactly sure where that anger was placed.

"If I had been just another ghoul, I would have been struck down without a second thought. That's the world we live in, as backwards as that seems. It's all because I'm a ghoul." Her voice was barely audible. "I'm a ghoul, and you're a Ghoul Investigator."

Both their eyes fell from each other's gaze for several long seconds as her words weighed heavily on Eren's heart. For his entire life, Eren had been taught what everyone knew about ghouls: that everything about a ghoul was a show. They manipulated, they played mind tricks, they lured people into a sick little game before they struck them down without any semblance of empathy. They were ruthless. They were heartless. They didn't care about anything or anyone, not even other ghouls. Every bit of emotion a ghoul ever showed was just that: a show, a facade they put up around people to blend in with the humans that would eventually become a meal for them. Every thought, every tiny interaction was premeditated murder. This line of thinking was especially prevalent within the ranks of the CCG and specifically the Ghoul Investigators; it was incredibly rare that they ever saw any side of ghouls besides the absolute worst.

_"Maybe what you thought about them **was** wrong. What you see is the negative aspect of ghouls, since that's your job, what you're exposed to every single day. Maybe there's a side to them that people don't fully understand. If all you see is the bad, the good is bound to get swept to the side, right? Maybe you need to look at it from the point of view of a ghoul rather than a person."_

The words Mikasa had spoke to him only a few days ago were suddenly very prominent in his head, as they had a whole new meaning to him now that he knew what she was. As Eren slowly looked at Mikasa again, a lump formed in his throat. Everything he knew about ghouls was the opposite of what Mikasa was. It was his job to be able to see through the act that ghouls put up, to see the killer behind the human mask, but none of that was there when he looked at Mikasa. She had never been anything but genuine, she hadn't tricked him into believing they had feelings for each other. It was real, from the first time they kissed, to the time Mikasa had finally given herself up to him. Nothing about that was fake. Nothing about their relationship had been an act.

"Eren," Mikasa finally said, looking at him again, snapping him out of his thoughts, "I want you to go home. Once you leave, please, never come back here."

Eren met her gaze rather quickly. "Wh-"

"There's nothing you can do for me." A smile was present on her face, but it didn't quite match her eyes - she was trying to make it seem genuine, but Eren know Mikasa well enough that he knew how good her poker face was. She was sad, these words were killing her, but she wasn't going to willingly show him that. "I know that even if you wanted to, there's no way you''ll ever be able to get me out of here. You know that too. It's best if you just move on."

"Mikasa-"

"You have your entire life laid out ahead of you, Eren. You'll do amazing things. I know you will." As she spoke, more tears fell down her cheek. "You're the most passionate and selfless person I've ever met. Carla would be so proud of you if she was still alive. She'd love to see the man that her son has become."

To that, Eren let out a bitter bark of laughter. "I wouldn't be a man if I just left you here to die."

"That's the smart thing to do," Mikasa replied. "If these last few days has taught me anything, it has been that doing what I've done for my entire life, lying to and deceiving those you care about...it won't go unpunished."

"You don't fucking deserve this!" Eren snapped at her. "For fuck's sake, Mikasa, you only did what you did to defend me." Eren's eyes fell to the clenched firsts resting on his legs, the knuckles turning white. "They should have let you go." His voice was low. "You never should have been arrested in the first place."

"You wouldn't say that if you didn't know me."

Eren's eyes snapped upward to her again, but she was also looking downward. "That's not true."

A smile formed on her lips once more. "The day after I first saved you from that ghoul, when we were discussing my motivations over breakfast, what was it you said, Eren?"

A knot formed in his throat.

"Armin asked you if you'd really kill a ghoul that had saved your life. Do you remember what your answer was?" Her sad eyes met his.

Eren remembered all too well.

_“It's a **ghoul.** Nothing a ghoul does is due to sympathy or pity. They don't have human emotions. They're just killers.”_

"That's why we were always doomed, Eren." Her voice was soft. "We never had a shot in hell, and I've always known it, but I always hoped otherwise. I always hoped that maybe someday, I'd find the courage to tell you the truth, that maybe we could put all of that aside and find a way to make it work." She sighed. "It was a selfish fantasy of mine and I'm sorry." Despite the heartbroken tone of her voice, that smile never once faded. "You'll make someone very happy one day, Eren. Hopefully someone who actually deserves you this time. I just want you to continue with your life happily, and to not let the things I've led you to believe impact that."

"What about you?" Eren snapped at her. "You're so concerned about my life, but what the hell are you going to do when I walk out that door?"

"I'll be okay."

At those words, Eren lost the ability to control his body; he roughly reached forward and grabbed Mikasa's face in both his hands, looking her dead in the eyes.

"Stop fucking lying to me!" Now he could also feel the sting of tears forming. "You'll be okay? That's a load of shit and you know it! You're going to be killed, Mikasa. Stop acting like you're okay with this and you're not terrified out of your mind!"

"Death isn't what I'm scared of."

Eren's eyes hardened. "For once in your goddamned life, Mikasa, tell me something that isn't a bold-faced lie!"

From the position he was holding her in, Eren could see Mikasa's throat pulsate as she swallowed very thickly.

Her eyes closed for a second, her thick black eyelashes catching another tear before she finally managed to speak. "I love you. I've always loved you, and I always will."

At those words, Eren was stunned into silence. His hands fell from their position on either side of her head, his own vision beginning to blur as the tears that had been forming in his turquoise eyes spilled over onto his cheek.

When he finally could bring himself to look at Mikasa again, she was smiling at him again, though it was considerably different then what it was moments ago. The tears were still present, but her face was warm, inviting, her eyes sparked with a life that he hadn't seen the entire time he had been in the cell with her.

"I just want you to be happy, Eren. That won't happen until you can put this part of your life behind you."

"Why do you think that leaving you here will make me happy?" Eren finally managed to choke out, trying in vain to control the emotions in his voice. "You're just going to be miserable for the rest of your life."

Mikasa rubbed the last of the tears from her eyes, and this time they weren't replaced. She took a deep breath.

"I'll be perfectly happy knowing that you're okay and moving on ." Eren opened his mouth to protest but she cut him off. "Eren, you can't help me." Her voice was soft but firm, imploring him to listen to her. "It's too late to do anything that will change my fate. For both our sakes, please, leave things the way they are. Continue with your life, and I'll continue with mine. I just have one request of you." She stared at the ground.

Eren could feel his tears start to slow. "What?"

"Leave the CCG."

At first, confusion clouded all of Eren's thoughts. This was something Mikasa had definitely asked him before in the past, though that was not what he had been expecting to hear from her right at that instant. For several seconds, a silence fell between them, as Eren struggled to process any real motivation behind what she had just asked him. The only conclusion he could come to was the danger that went into his work as an Investigator.

"Don't ask me to abandon something I've been working toward my entire life, Mikasa," he finally managed to say. "That's not fair, and you know it."

"Please don't throw your life away, Eren," she whispered. More tears began to from in her eyes. "I want to know that you're safe."

"I won't throw my life away," he told her, his voice firm, his eyes set in determination. "I'll be fine, Mikasa." The look she gave him in response wasn't exactly encouraging, so Eren flashed her a small smile. "I'll worry about myself, and you keep yourself safe, alright? Just do what they say and you'll be fine." Eren gently reached in toward her face to brush a bit of hair out of her face. He could feel her body relax under the familiar sensation of his touch "I have far less to worry about than you do."

Mikasa nodded and nothing else was said between them for several seconds.

Eren broke the lack of noise with a sigh. "Well, I suppose..."

Mikasa's dark, wide grey eyes stared straight into his turquoise ones, as she gave him a smile. "Thank you," she murmured.

One of his eyebrows raised. "For what?"

"For everything. For coming here and giving me a second chance to explain myself. For making my life so much brighter than it would have been if I had never met you." She quickly wiped tears away again. "I'll never see you again, but please don't die. Just do me that one last favor." Her voice broke on the last word.

"Goodbye, Mikasa." Even to Eren, that felt tremendously inadequate, especially after what she had said to him, but he was afraid that if he said much more, his growing emotions would overcome him. As he stepped closer to the door, away from Mikasa, Eren whipped out his phone and pulled up Armin's contact screen to send him a highly heated text about getting his blond ass back into the cell to let him out.

"Eren!" The brunet stopped and looked back at her. Mikasa was slowly crossing the distance between them, the bottom of her prison gown licking the cold ground under her feet as she came to a stop directly beside him. With a sigh, Mikasa's fingers slowly moved toward the engagement ring he had given her what felt like a lifetime ago and she removed it from her ring finger. Holding it in the palm of her hand, Mikasa extended her arm toward him and held it there, waiting for him to take the ring back.

Eren's eyes shifted from her palm to her stricken face then back to her hand again. Eren reached out toward her palm in turn, but instead of grabbing the piece of jewelry, he gently closed her fingers around the ring and pushed her arm back down so it hung by her side.

He shook his head. "No."

When Armin opened the door to finally let Eren out, he brushed out as quickly as possible before his emotions overwhelmed him. Deep in his heart, however, Eren knew one thing for sure: that wasn't the last time he would see Mikasa. He wasn't going to let her die in that prison. He had no idea how, or even if it was possible, but he was going to free her. He'd find a way.

Eren stopped in the hallway, Armin directly behind him.

The blond frowned at him. "Is everything okay, Eren? You both seemed a little shaken up."

Eren turned on his friend, his eyes pleading. "I need your help, Armin."

Rather than question him like Eren had been expecting, Armin gave him a knowing smile. "We can talk about it on the way home. Truth be told, I don't have any real ideas, but we can think together."

Eren nodded. "Thank you."

_Just hang in there, Mikasa._


	12. Preparations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait for this chapter. It fell on really awkward timing with Colossalcon, me meeting four of my Tumblr friends for the first time, and one of my international friends living with me for two weeks. As I was almost done with this chapter, a new piece of information about the nature of ghoul prisons was released that was a bit jarring for my interpreted perspective of them, but I think I got it to work in the nature of this story. It set me back several days, however, so this one took a while to get out. I'm going to try my hardest to keep updates regular for this fic and not fall into the terrible habit of bi-monthly updates that I always seem to.

Far from Shinganshina, in the capital city of Mitris, a Ghoul Investigator was reviewing a list of high-profile cases that had been closed over the past few days. His piercing blue eyes swam with boredom as he wordlessly scrolled through the list, his fingers running idly through his greasy dark hair under the cowboy-inspired hat on his head.

The man went by Kenny, even though had a surname as well. His full name was known by precious few, however, and had built a name for himself within the ranks of the CCG as Kenny the Ripper. His prowess as an Investigator had not gone unnoticed, and in a matter of years, he had risen from a first-class agent, eventually becoming special class and even reaching beyond that point as a Division Commander. Kenny had reached in a handful of years what took the overwhelming majority of Investigators who even made it that far a lifetime to achieve.

Shinganshina was one of hundreds of cities under his command, being the only bridge between the special class Investigators of that city and the chairman of the CCG. Kenny stifled a yawn as he continued to scroll through the list of ghouls - just names and aliases that meant nothing to him past the red status just to the right of their pictures. All of them were listed as either detained or destroyed, and all he had to do was write off the destroyed ghouls. The ones in prison made up an insignificant minority and they were as good as dead anyway, so that meant little to him.

The bored scrolling stopped abruptly, however, as one name stood out to him: Mikasa Ackerman, a ghoul from Shinganshina, supposedly the ghoul that had been responsible for the string of murders that Kenny had been annoyingly close to responding to. He had reviewed the file of her alias before a couple times, before they actually had a name for the elusive "Fox Ghoul". She was a chimera, the lesser known term for a ghoul with more than one Rc type that occurred naturally. They were a rarity indeed, and he had only known of three in his entire career. Ironically, they were all within the same family. It was dumb luck that she just happened to be listed as detained.

"Well, that's quite a twist," he snorted to himself, before opening up her file and printing off a copy of it. Grabbing the thin stack off papers off the machine that spat it out, he made his way to an elevator a few rooms down, taking it to one of the top floor of the main HQ.

For a moment, he paused outside of a door engraved with the a plate reading "Commission of Counter Ghoul Chairman: Rod Reiss". While his blue eyes rested on the picture of Mikasa they had taken when she had been brought in, he knocked on the door three times. Looking at this ghoul was like looking at a picture of her mother, if he was correct in assuming her identity. The same grey eyes, the same long black hair, heavily Asian features, though maybe not quite as prominent as Ryoko's had been. When he got no immediate response at the door, Kenny rolled his eyes and brushed past the door and into the room without a second thought. A balding middle-aged man give Kenny an irritated look, hanging up the phone in his hands as the commander finally stopped at Reiss' desk, throwing the file down in front of him.

"I was busy, you know."

"Thought you'd find this one pretty interesting," Kenny grunted, swinging his leg up onto the desk as he sat on it.

"That's not a seat," Rod grumbled as he picked the papers up.

"If my ass is sitting on it,it's a seat."

Rod opted to ignore him, as his blue eyes quickly scanned over the file, eyebrows arching as he finally registered what he was looking at. Finally, he glanced back up at Kenny. "Another chimera with the name Ackerman, eh? Do you suppose she's a relative of yours?"

Kenny nodded. "No doubt. Looks almost exactly like my brother's wife, so my guess is that she's my niece. We lost track of them years ago, right around the time Levi started stirring up shit."

"Things always work out in the end." He paused for a moment. "It looks like they've got her locked up in Shinganshina." Rod looked up from the paper again. "I'd very like a chance to meet this niece of yours in person."

Kenny bit back an urge to groan. It was to be expected, but it meant more work for both of them. "I'll make sure they don't schedule her for disposal just yet, in that case." He stood up. "If she's anything like her brother, she'll be a stubborn little brat."

Rod seemed unperturbed by Kenny's words. "I think this Mikasa Ackerman will find me more persuasive than you give her credit for."

* * *

She might not have been a Ghoul Investigator anymore, but as Hanji approached the building that housed the ghoul detention center known as Karanes, she knew she at least looked the part. Dressed in a black suit, quinque in hand, hair falling freely down her neck, Hanji could have blended in as easily as any other Ghoul Investigator in Shinganshina, but she was a stranger in this city, and others knew that.

Hanji could feel two pairs of eyes on her as she slowly walked into the prison, crossing the threshold to one of the highest security ghoul detention centers for hundreds of miles around. Nobody recognized her, which of course did slightly raise suspicions toward her as she approached the security gate, but Hanji had pulled this off enough times to be totally confident in herself. There wasn't any kind of front lobby - just a control panel locked steel security door that was the only way in and out of the facility. Two guards stood beside the door, one to the left of it, and the other seated at a desk behind a wall of glass. They both were looking at her with suspicion, but Hanji ignored it as she finally came to a stop in front of the glass.

Without promoting, Hanji pulled out a card and slid it to the woman behind the window.

"Kimi Nishino," she said, "Ghoul Investigator from Sina. Special class." She paused to push her glasses back up on her nose. "I'm here on behalf of the central office to conduct a brief examination of some of the facilities in this detention center. It has come to our notice that you are holding a prisoner that is related to an investigation in the city of Mitris and we want to ensure there won't be any issues containing her."

The female guard looked at the badge Hanji had handed her for a few seconds. "Were they expecting you?"

"If they were expecting us every single time we decided to do inspections, that would be rather pointless, don't you think?"

The guard's eyes were harsh. "Ma'am, I've been working here for years, and I've never once seen a surprise inspection from the central office, ever."

Despite the annoyance starting to flare in her chest, Hanji kept her face warm. "And you're doing your job very well. You're wise to doubt me, but if you really don't want to take my word for it, you can very easily trace my badge. Or better even, why don't you give the Division Commander a call? I'm sure Kenny isn't so busy that he can't take a few minutes out of his day to answer any concerns you might have."

The girl's face fell ever so slightly at the idea of that. Their Division Commander was notorious for the incredibly foul moods he got himself into when he was angry or even mildly irritated.

"Just run the number on the badge," the man standing by the door grunted. "If there's anything out of place here, it'll tell you."

The woman punched in a few keys on the computer in front of her, and Hanji knew what she would soon be looking at: a simply impeccable record for an imaginary special-class Investigator named Kimi Nishino. It was mainly thanks to a human named Moblit Berner, who worked in the CCG's main headquarters as a media analyst. He was an old friend of Hanji's who had proven to be a very useful ally on the inside. Giving her a fake identity in their computer system so that Hanji could literally walk through the front door of most offices and prisons with minimal effort in order to get an eye for their next target was just one of many services Moblit had done for Hanji and the Scouting Legion over the years.

Given how notorious Karanes was for it's heightened security, Erwin wanted to ensure they had an idea as to what they were walking into, and he wanted to know exactly where Mikasa was being held to ensure they got her out before they even considered freeing other ghouls.

After a few seconds, the girl finally slid the badge back to Hanji. "Alright, it looks like you have clearance. Is there anyone in particular you wanted to speak to?"

"Just whoever has ownership rights to the ghoul named Mikasa Ackerman. I have to speak to her as well before I leave."

Silence for a few more seconds, as the guard typed something else into the computer. "Armin Arlert. He's the lead researcher in Shinganshina. I'll have him meet you in the front room." Hanji just nodded, walking toward the door as it opened to allow her access. As she passed it and the steel structure slammed shut behind her, Hanji couldn't help but muse over how odd that was. A researcher with custody rights to a ghoul? Now that was something she'd never heard of. Usually the one who claimed ownership over an imprisoned ghoul was directly involved in capturing them. But that couldn't possibly be the case, since only Ghoul Investigators were permitted to carry quinques. Guns with specialized bullets coated with quinque steel were permitted to be carried by certain people, mainly the prison guards. Sometimes Bureau Investigators, the ones who mostly stayed at the office and did desk work, occasionally assisted with questioning and killing ghouls, but guns were never a very effective way of intimating them. It was a very curious system they seemed to have in place at this particular detention center.

"Ms. Nishino, I take it?" Hanji almost had to force herself to react to the unfamiliar name. Still, she looked up to see a young blond man dressed in white scrubs and a lab coat approaching her, a warm smile on his face.

"Armin Arlert?" she asked.

He nodded, offering his hand to shake. "It's nice to meet you, even if I am a bit confused as to why it was me you requested to speak to."

Hanji just smiled back at him, returning his gesture. "I needed clearance to speak with the ghoul named Mikasa Ackerman in regard to an investigation in Mitris, and I was told that you have ownership rights to her."

Armin blinked for a second, clearly not expecting that, but he quickly composed himself. "Sort of. Technically, she belongs to the research wing. I just happen to be in charge of that. Of course, it's not an issue at all. I can easily arrange a meeting with her if you wish." As he spoke, he started to walk toward the staircase in the center of the room, and Hanji followed him, easily matching his pace. "Is there anything else you'd like to see first? The ghouls in her cellblock are currently being given their scheduled exercise time, but they should be back in their cells in a few hours."

"I'm here to inspect the ghoul compactor, but I wouldn't mind seeing that exercise room either."

Armin just nodded, starting the process of climbing the huge staircase that wrapped the entire length of the stories-high building.

"So," Hanji prompted, "I'm curious as to how a researcher got ownership rights to a ghoul with the track record this one does."

Armin snorted. "Yeah, that's a good question, too. The Investigator that brought her in really had a bone to pick with her. She supposedly killed his partner, and since we were already planning on running experiments to learn more about her unusual kagune, he told me to take rights to her and to do whatever I wanted to do with said rights."

"So, she is a chimera?" Hanji asked. Armin gave her a somewhat confused look, clearly not recognizing the term she used. "She's got two Rc types without being a kakuja?"

That time, Armin nodded. "I didn't realize the central office had a name for them. To be honest, I wasn't even sure there were more of them out there besides Ackerman."

"They're incredibly rare. I've only known of a few in my career, at least. It's not surprising you've never heard the term." Hanji paused for a moment. "What kind of experiments were you doing with her kagune?" Hanji tried to keep her voice more interested than concerned, but she knew that she needed to be aware of the nature of said exams, so they'd know whether or not to be able to count on her help during the escape. God knew what they had already done to her kagune.

"Nothing too damaging," Armin said, almost as if reading her mind. "We've just been testing it, seeing how resilient it is and how well it can resist different weapons. We've cut both the wings and the tails off on different occasions and seen how long it takes them to regenerate under different circumstances. It's been a heavily stressful ordeal for M-" He cut himself off in mid-sentence to clear his throat. "Ackerman. She hasn't had the best mental state since she was brought here, though it has improved over the past week or so. I've been trying to not overwhelm her, but the nature of these tests are inherently painful and invasive and there's not much I can do about that, unfortunately."

As the word 'unfortunately' left Armin's lips, Hanji felt one of her eyebrows arching in surprise and she continued to follow the blond up the stairs, staying just behind him the entire time. "You certainly seem interested in this ghoul's wellbeing."

Armin looked back at her out of the corner of his eyes. "Do you consider that a bad thing?"

Hanji shook her head. "Not at all. If anything, that line of thinking is admirable. And all too rare."

Armin snorted. "You don't have to tell me twice. I'm the subject of a lot of criticism around here because I don't blindly hate ghouls. It's mostly just mean-spirited jokes, but I've butted heads with my coworkers a lot over the precautions I take when doing any sort of testing that uses live ghouls as guinea pigs." He sighed. "Ghouls aren't monsters. At least, not inherently. You have the bad eggs, but they're few and far between and their entire species suffers for it. I can tell you without an ounce of doubt that a lot of the ghouls in this prison don't deserve to be here. Most of them were just uprooted from their lives because of things they have no control over. They're brought here to be subjected to our mercy until they're put to death, so that's what I show them: mercy. I gain nothing from being cruel to a creature in the position these ghouls are." As Armin finally stepped onto a landing to the side of the staircase, he let out another sigh. "I just wish more Investigators saw it that way, but that's a battle I have long since given up on."

"I used to be like that." Hanji echoed his motions, following the researcher as he began to move down a hallway. "In a way, you have to excuse Investigators. Many of them have personal vendettas against ghouls."

"You speaking from personal experience?"

To that, Hanji nodded. "That was exactly why I joined the CCG in my youth. Like so many other young Investigators, all I cared about was the people that I had lost to ghouls and I didn't care how many of them I had to mow down until I felt like I was making a difference, somewhere in my vengeful mind. And I did. I killed hundreds of ghouls. Some were dangerous, some were innocent, some were young, and some were old. That didn't matter to me. I made no attempt to differentiate one ghoul from another, and that was where it became dangerous and detrimental." She paused to look at Armin again, who had finally stopped at a door and was watching her with a reserved expression. "I'm not quite that close-minded these days, but I certainly know where most Investigators get that attitude toward ghouls. You have to be very strong of mind to question the image you get of them when your only interactions with ghouls are vengeful fights and memories of loss."

For a moment, Armin looked like he was going to further question her for more details, but instead he nodded his head toward the door they were standing in front of. "The exercise room is right through here."

Armin swiped his badge to gain access to a new room. When they passed the door, Hanji found herself standing on a balcony overlooking a square, steel room. There were guards armed with guns stationed every few feet along the walkway, all staring downward into the room below. Hanji stepped closer to the railing, following their gaze to see a relatively bare room below them. The floor and walls seemed to be made of the same quinque steel that was standard for all ghoul dentition centers to use in any room that was used for containing ghouls at any time.

The room contained just a few amenities - there was a corner with some mats, a pile of balls from various types of games, and a court area with both volleyball net and a basketball hoop. Several benches also hugged the walls, and there were doors on three of the four walls that made up the area. The amount of noise coming from the ghouls wandering throughout the room that was comparable to a university cafeteria, as most of them were moving, sitting or playing in groups, all talking to each other in some way. They were all dressed in the same uniform: a white shirt and pants for the males, and a white gown for the females, so it was difficult to pick out which one of the prisoners was potentially Mikasa in the sea of at least fifty ghouls. The only contrast to the white was the black uniforms of the four guards on the floor, one in every corner.

Again, as if reading her mind, Armin stepped up to her side and nodded toward one of the benches. "She's right there."

Hanji followed his line of sight to see three ghouls sitting together, and she instantly could tell which one was her sister-in-law . They were all females, but two of them were light-haired and white. The one sitting on the end looked so much like Levi that it was impossible to deny their relation. She was less animated than the other two, but still managed to smile every seconds when replying to whatever conversation the other ghouls were having with her. Apparently, much to Hanji's eternal relief, she had less of a stick rammed up her ass than her brother did.

"Looks like she finally started to talking to the others," Armin commented, a small smile turning his lips upward ever so slightly. "I'm glad. She really doesn't talk to anyone besides me. The ghouls only get this one day a week and it's pretty important to keep them in a healthier state of mind. They'd probably go stir-crazy if they weren't allowed to get out of those cells and interact with each other occasionally."

Hanji's eyes slowly fell from Mikasa's reserved expression and to the door in one of the walls. "Where do those lead?"

"One is a bathroom, one leads out to the cells, and the last door is connected to the cafeteria."

"What do you feed the ghouls at this facility, just out of curiosity? I've heard that some of the detention centers have moved to artificial meat rather than feeding them ghoul meat."

"We have," Armin replied. "I can't get too detailed because we're still experimenting with it, but it's a modified by-product of ghoul meat that satisfies their hunger, but also keeps their energy low. We haven't had any ghouls starve to death on it yet, so it must be compatible with their bodies."

Hanji snorted. "It sounds delectable."

"Can't say I've tried it," Armin said with a chuckle. "It also means we have to waste less time bothering with Rc suppressants, since their energy is fundamentally low. Giving them exercise time also adds to that. Only certain ghouls are kept under suppressants at all times." He looked up to the ceiling, to point out a device that looked like a sprinkler. "In an emergency, we have them. They release fast-acting Rc suppressants that can be inhaled."

"The security in this place isn't just a rumor, eh?"

Armin shrugged. "It's been broken into enough times that the security is kind of necessary. It hasn't happened in years, but that's only since they upped everything. Anyway," he turned to look at Hanji again, "on to the ghoul compactor then?"

Hanji nodded, making a mental note to remember the location of this room. If they were going to try and free a large number of ghouls, hitting a wide, open room where dozens of ghouls were given relatively free reign to roam around seemed like the best opportunity they would come across.

* * *

 

In the week following her last meeting with Eren, Mikasa had very quickly learned to dread the sound of her cell door opening, as it became almost overnight a harbinger of nothing but pain. At least once a day, she was taken from the very slight comfort of her cell and walked to that small room that she'd come to hate with every fiber of her being, where she'd be put at the complete mercy of whoever was overseeing her daily torture. Armin hadn't bothered to visit her at all during that time; the only instances where she saw him was when she was 'lucky' enough to have him present while the rest of them mutilated her kagune through increasingly unnecessary and painful methods. Their last session had involved all three of her tails and both her wings being hacked off separately at the base with a quinque, then being left bolted down to a table for several hours while they timed it to see how long it took her to regenerate all five appendages without eating anything to aid in the regeneration. Armin hadn't been present for that one, but she supposed he probably wouldn't have made a huge difference. He didn't stand up for her as much as he had when she was first subjected to their experiments, though she could tell it was getting harder for Armin to watch it every single time. If Mikasa had to guess as to why Armin hadn't shown up to all their research sessions, she assumed that it was because having to witness it was quickly becoming draining for him. And as miserable and lonely as she had become through the isolation and daily abuse, Mikasa knew she couldn't fault Armin for it. He didn't have a choice any more than she did. That was just the reality of the mess they were in.

Still, despite her near-constant pain, Mikasa was feeling infinitely better in the last week than she had been when she had first been locked away in this giant steel cage, and she knew it was largely due to Eren. For a moment, her eyes flashed to her hands, folded in her lap, the simple silver band still resting on her ring finger. That was all the evidence in the world she needed to see how Eren felt toward her. Despite all that had happened, despite the fact that she had lied to him and betrayed him, despite the fact that she was in prison on death row, despite the fact that it had once belonged to his mother and Mikasa was well aware of what it meant, he hadn't taken that ring back when she had offered it to him. Somewhere deep down, Eren still loved her, too, and that was more than she ever could have asked for. She had no idea how dominant that part of him was, and it was undoubtedly buried deep under several levels of hurt, but it was still there, and she was going to hold on to it. As hopeless as her situation was, it was all she had. She might not have expected anything to happen that would change her fate, but that tiny sliver of light at the end of pitch-black tunnel was enough to keep her from the edge of despair.

Mikasa's eyes instinctively looked upward when she heard the all-too-familiar sound of the door to the interrogation area opening. The person who entered, however, was nobody Mikasa had ever seen before. The brown-haired woman wasn't a guard - she wasn't wearing the uniform, and was armed with a quinque rather than a gun, though that didn't make Mikasa feel any more comfortable. The woman sat the briefcase she was carrying by the door and slowly approached the glass, though didn't sit down when she reached the microphone.

"So, you're Mikasa? I've heard a lot about you, both good and bad."

Mikasa just stared at her, refusing to budge from her bed.

"Do you want to come to talk to me?" The brunette took a seat in front of the glass. "I'd very much like an opportunity to talk to you. You seem like a very fascinating young woman." When Mikasa just continued to watch her, she shrugged. "No? Well, that's fine then. Whatever makes you more comfortable. We're among friends here, right?"

The look Mikasa gave her told the woman that she in no way considered them 'friends', which earned her a laugh from the stranger.

"Honestly, the resemblance is uncanny. He also looks at me like he's going to disembowel me when I try joking around. It must be an Ackerman thing."

Very quickly, Mikasa's face shifted from irritation to confusion. Who the hell even was this woman? Mikasa knew for a fact that she'd never met her before, but she was talking to her like she was an old family friend, like she was someone Mikasa should have known.

The woman stood up. "Anyway, I'll leave you to it if you don't want to humor me." With a dismissive wave of her hand, she turned and began to walk away. "You seem to be in good enough health, so I'll see you in a few days. Try not to get yourself thrown into the ghoul compactor in the meantime, would you?"

With that, the woman picked her quinque up off the ground and slid out the door, leaving Mikasa heavily confused on her bed alone.

* * *

With a sigh, Eren threw himself into the passenger side of the police cruiser. His turquoise eyes winced heavily as he reached into the glove compartment of the car and pulled out a small bag that contained some very basic first aid supplies. After fishing around in it for a few seconds, he pulled out a bandage wrap and tried not to outwardly shudder as he turned his attention to the mess of his upper left arm.

Five black crystals were embedded deeply into the sensitive skin of his arm, just above his elbow. It wasn't the first time that he'd been hit by an ukaku's crystals, but that certainly didn't make the experience any less painful - it was comparable to getting hit by shrapnel that was specifically designed to penetrate damn near anything it touched and it hurt like a bitch. As Eren gently ran his fingers over the projectiles, a part of him was silently grateful that it hadn't hit him somewhere more vital. It would take long enough to heal; he didn't need it to be actually life-threatening.

As he heard Jean moving around outside the car, Eren closed his eyes, dreading what he had to do next. He grasped one of the crystals, setting his jaw as the slight pressure sent fresh waves of pain through his entire arm. When he started to actually pull on it, his grip slipped off of the smooth surface of the projectile. His eyes closed again and he leaned back against the headrest of the seat, a deep groan escaping his lips. Eren clenched his eyes shut even tighter when he heard the door beside him open and Jean climbed into the driver's seat.

"What's your excuse this time, Eren?" he almost immediately said in that annoyingly condescending voice of his that made Eren want to deck him in the face at least once a day.

"My partner sucks ass at his job? That's generally what happens when one of us gets injured in the line of duty."

Jean gave him a deadpan look. "Are you going to blame your new quinque this time?"

"I wasn't blaming my quinque, I was blaming you. You're putting words into my mouth, pal."

"Oh, right, I forgot that you've already exhausted that excuse twice this week."

Eren opened one of his eyes. "Has it really only been a week? The days all melt together when I get to hear your beautifully grating voice on a daily basis."

Jean just scowled at him, reaching over the center console to take the first aid supplies from Eren. He rummaged though it for a few seconds before he pulled out a tool that looked similar to a large pair of pliers with large, jagged, serrated teeth - just about the only thing they had that was capable of getting a strong grip on ukaku crystals.

"Alright, hold still," Jean ordered him, moving toward him with the tool in hand.

Eren immediately pulled back from him.

"Don't be a baby, Eren," the blond snapped. "You can't walk around with crystals hanging out your damn arm."

"Watch me," he muttered, but didn't pull away when Jean leaned in a second time, this time with a cloth in hand in addition to the pliers. He began to wrap the cloth around his arm, just above the crystals as a makeshift tourniquet, in preparation for the gaping wounds that would soon be opened.

Satisfied with his work upon knotting it, he looked back to Eren. "You ready?"

Eren tore off a piece of the bandage in his hand and stuck it in his mouth, giving Jean a stiff nod in response. His eyes were already closing when he felt pressure on the crystal. The brunet could feel his breath catch in his throat as Jean began to actually pull at the crystal closest to his shoulder. After a bit of twisting and pulling, Jean managed to pull it free, though in a time that took much longer than would have been preferred.

"Take your time!" he spat at Jean, tearful turquoise eyes fixing him an agonized glare.

Jean pulled at the second crystal, his face largely unsympathetic to Eren's situation. "Don't use that tone of voice with me," he grumbled. "This only happened because you weren't paying a damn bit of attention to that ghoul. How difficult is it to remember that ukakus can fire projectiles that are, might I add, lethal and incredibly painful to remove?"

"I'm aware!" Eren barked, letting out a gasp of pain as the second crystal was torn from his skin.

"You're aware, but you let yourself get totally blindsided and the damn thing escaped while you were crying like a three-year-old."

Eren shot him a glare that would have struck him dead if looks could kill. "I didn't see you doing a whole lot to stop him from escaping."

"No, I was too busy covering your stupid ass."

No more words were spoken between them except curses from Eren, as Jean continued the messy process of yanking the crystals out of his arm, and eventually wrapped it with a bandage. In a way, it reminded him of how Mikasa would have reacted. She'd chew him out to hell and back about something like this.

Eren's face fell when he thought of Mikasa again. It had been a week since he had last seen her, and they had made approximately zero progress of even coming close to a plan to free her. Armin had mentioned that the only real exit to Karanes beyond the front the door was the drainage channel in the facility's ghoul compactor. The ghoul compactor was essentially a large steel box in the ground, with moving walls that were used to crush ghouls to death when they were finally slated for disposal. Obviously, the thought of Mikasa having to actually climb down into something like that didn't really rest well with either Eren or Armin. Eren especially. Just the idea of sending Mikasa through that thing made him incredibly uneasy - there were various elements to such a plan that could go wrong, the most worrying being if someone caught them and activated the machine while she was actually inside it, which was a very real possibility.

Armin, however, had been firm and insisted that there was no other way they'd stand a chance in hell of getting her out of there alive. Their choices were to take a risk and attempt to get her out through an incredibly dangerous method, or do nothing and wait for her to overstay her welcome in the prison and be crushed to death anyway. It was a grim situation either way they looked at it, but Eren wanted to fully explore every single option before he put Mikasa near that ghoul compactor.

"EREN!"

Eren jumped a bit, suddenly jolted from his thoughts. "Hm"? he grunted.

Jean sighed, giving him a somewhat serious stare. "Eren, just listen to me for once, alright? I'm telling you this as your friend and as your partner, but I'm getting worried about you."

Eren raised an eyebrow at him. "Excuse me?"

"This is the third time in a week that you've been injured because of a stupid mistake that you never would have made previously."

"Sorry we can't all be perfect, Jean," Eren snapped back, already feeling irritation over his friend's words. He was aware of the fuck ups that he'd been doing lately - between how distracted he'd been with the situation involving Mikasa and getting used to his new quinque, he was also getting frustrated with himself as well. The last thing he needed was he arrogant-ass partner getting huffy about it too. "You've made plenty of mistakes too."

"I'm not asking for perfection," he replied, trying to keep his tone even. "But I need a partner I can at least rely on. You've been way off, Eren. You haven't been...normal... since that thing with Mikasa happened."

And there they were, the words Eren had been waiting for him to say from the second his ass had climbed into the car with him. They were _so_ not having this conversation.

At his words, Eren opened the car door and stepped out onto the sidewalk.

"Where the hell are you going?"

"Somewhere I don't have to listen to your voice," Eren snapped back.

With a roll of his eyes, Jean climbed out of the car to follow him. "That's right," Jean called back to him coldly, "you just run away from your problems, Eren. Don't face them. Ignore them, and they'll go away, right? You'll wake up from this dream in your own little world and everything about Mikasa will be all cleared up."

Eren stopped dead in his tracks to face Jean again. "Don't say a damn word to me about Mikasa," he seethed. "You have no idea what the hell happened. You don't know anything about where we are right now."

Jean glared back, eyes harsh. "I'll tell you where you two are: you're a Ghoul Investigator and she's a ghoul. You're a human and she's a ghoul. She's in prison for murdering nine of our comrades, and you're a part of the police force that exists to kill- no, eradicate creatures like her. Mikasa is not just a ghoul, she's one of the worst kinds."

Eren could feel his body shake slightly, as he fought to calm himself, to ignore Jean's biting, venomous words.

"You have to wake up, Eren! Mikasa _lied_ to you."

"Shut up." Eren's voice was low.

"She deceived you. She deceived all of us. That's what they do. That's what _ghouls_ do."

"Jean, I swear to god, if you don't shut the fuck up-"

"Nothing she has ever said to you has been real. She played all of us like a deck of cards. The only difference is I've woken up to reality, and you refuse to. You refuse to see her for the monster she really is. You-" Jeans words were cut off as Eren's fist brutally collided with his jaw.

"I might have been lied to, but here's something I know for a fact, and you're going to fucking listen to me. Mikasa did not kill those people. I don't give a damn if anyone on the planet besides me believes her, but I do." Angry tears began to swell in his eyes. "I saw it with my own eyes. I watched her bring her kagune out to defend me from two ghouls that were going to leave me dead in the street. I watched her get ganged up on while I was helpless to do anything. I watched one of them rip her limbs off, and yet she still stood between us, until the second my comrades arrived to send her to death row." Eren clenched his fists tighter, as more tears ran down his face.

"None of my so-called friends believed me when I told them that I witnessed two other ghouls admit that they killed all those Investigators. My own father didn't even believe me. But Mikasa..." his voice faded for a moment. "Mikasa never changed. Despite all that's happened, she never stopped caring about me. I don't give a fuck if she's a ghoul, I know every emotion she has is genuine." Jean finally picked himself up off the ground, to return Eren's glare. "She's not a monster. Don't you ever call her a monster. If she was a monster, she would have killed you when she had the opportunity to do so."

A heavy silence fell between them for several seconds.

Finally, Jean turned on him. "Find a new partner. I don't want to work with someone who'd choose a goddamned ghoul over his common sense." Without another word, Jean stepped back into the car and took off, leaving Eren behind on the street.

Once the police cruiser was gone, Eren bridled all his pent-up rage into a scream and a punch leveled into the trunk of a tree to his immediate left. The second, his fist came in contact with the tree, Eren could hear his phone go off. The loud proclamation of the "giant asshole on the other end of the phone" told him that it was Armin before he even touched it. Eren closed his eyes, a deep sigh passing his lips as the phone hit the second loop of "ASSHOLE CALLING!" No part of him wanted to talk to anyone at the moment, but he eventually decided to answer.

"What's up?" he asked, pressing the phone to his ears.

"Eren, I need you to meet me at the apartment the second you can."

Eren definitely did not like the tone of voice his friend was using. "Why, whats going on?"

"I have no idea, but today I had to give a tour to a special-class Ghoul Investigator from the central office that wanted to speak with Mikasa."

Eren blinked in confusion. "Mikasa? Why the hell-"

"I don't know, Eren," Armin replied, his tone grim. "She said that Mikasa was wanted in connection to an Investigation in Mitris."

"Mikasa has lived in Shinganshina since she was seven years old," Eren immediately replied. "I don't think she's ever even been to Mitris. Why the hell would someone think from central think Mikasa was involved in something hundred of miles away?"

Armin sighed. "I have no idea, but there's something going on, Eren. I'm a lot more worried Mikasa now than I ever have been. If we don't do something soon, we might lose her for good."

"Like hell," Eren growled back.

"Just come home, Eren. You can vent to me behind closed doors in the privacy of our own house."

Eren was about to hang up the phone, but he stopped himself when he remembered that Jean had left him on the side of the road. "Can you come pick me up?"

Eren could almost picture the way Armin was pinching the bridge of his nose. "Where the hell is your partner?"

"Probably jacking off to a horse somewhere."

That time, Armin couldn't help but snort in laughter. "What did you say to him?"

"He started it, not me."

"Okay, Eren." The tone of voice he used told Eren that he most definitely did not believe him. "Where are you at?"

"In front of a brick house on Parade."

"Just sit tight. I'll be there in about ten minutes."

"Take your time, buddy."

As the phone went dead, Eren let out another sigh. God, this situation just kept getting better by the damn second.


	13. The Promise

_"You are being completely ridiculous."_

As Eren slowly continued the decent down the staircase to Mikasa's cell, the heated argument he'd had with Armin only a couple hours ago was fresh in his mind.

_"What's ridiculous is to sit around picking our noses when the central office wants to do god knows what with Mikasa. They could kill her at any second and if they decide to do that, we can't do a damn thing about it!"_

_To his words, Armin had sighed. "Eren, I'm not saying we can't do anything to help her, but we need to think this through."_

_"I'm done thinking this through!" he had barked back. That's what we've been doing for weeks, and it's gotten us nowhere. We're no closer to freeing her now then when we started."_

_"It's a high security ghoul prison that hasn't been infiltrated or escaped from in a decade, Eren!" he snapped. "I might be in charge of a branch in Shinganshina, but I can't just snap my fingers and expect to be allowed to carry her out the front door." His voice trailed off for a second before he looked at Eren again. "Just give me a few days, I'll-"_

_We might not have a few more days, Armin." His voiced had softened at that. "I just want to make sure she's alright."_

_Armin's glare wavered at his plea. "I understand that, Eren. I want to get her out, too, believe me. I've allowed more pain to be inflicted on her in the last few weeks than I'll ever be able to forgive myself for." He sighed, running his fingers through his hair. "But you can't just run into this blindly."_

_"I don't have a choice anymore," he had replied flatly._

_Armin's glare returned on command. "Whatever you plan on doing, you are being reckless and stupid I will have no part in it."_

_Eren then returned the vicious look Armin had been firing his way. "I wasn't asking for your permission, pal."_

_"If you screw this up, Mikasa will be killed. You've got one chance at this, and if you fail because you're a damn bullhead who wouldn't listen to me, she will be the one who suffers the ultimate price."_

Eren's eyes narrowed at the memory, as he finally came to a stop in front of the door Armin had previously led him to. Armin just had no faith in him; Eren knew he could do this. He didn't have much of a plan outside what they had previously discussed - that the prison had a drainage channel in the bottom of the ghoul compactor. It wasn't exactly ideal, but if that was their only option, he'd take it. There was still the issue of what they hell he'd do if someone came along while Mikasa was making her escape, but he'd cross that bridge when they came to it.

Eren swiped his badge in the card reader to unlock the first door, silently grateful that all Ghoul Investigators had the ability to at least enter the interrogation area of almost any cell. Getting her past the glass would be another story, because the prison guards and a few select people were the only ones who carried keys to the actual cell, but Eren had an idea. Before the door swung open, Eren brought out his new quinque - one made from the kagune of an ukaku ghoul. It took the shape of a canon with a curved wing-shaped blade on the top the the bottom as it wrapped its way around his wrist.

As the door opened, Eren could see Mikasa curled up on her bed. He couldn't tell if she was sleeping or not, as her face was turned toward the wall, but she didn't react to the sound of the door opening regardless. He quickly eyed the surveillance camera in the top left corner of the cell and with one shot from the quinque, it had exploded into a mess of wires and metal.

Mikasa heard the sound of the camera shattering and immediately jolted herself awake, eyes turned toward the glass just in time to see the light from a second blast from the quinque hit the barrier between herself and the interrogation area. It stood strong for a few seconds, but the longer the blast from the canon pressed into the glass, the weaker it became, until finally a crack appeared and it eventually shattered. Mikasa was quick to cover her face, as the shards of glass bounced off her skin like she was made of stone, and she finally got a good look at who was standing a the entrance to her cell. When her eyes made contact with Eren's emerald ones, Mikasa couldn't help the small smile that appeared on her lips, and unlike the last time they had seen each other, this time Eren returned the look with his own lopsided grin.

As Mikasa carefully climbed over the remains of the glass wall that had previously imprisoned her, she arched an eyebrow at him. "Really, Eren? You couldn't just steal a key? You had to blow a hole in the wall?"

To that, Eren gave her that look of mock offense that she'd grown so accustomed to. "This is the part where you thank me." For a moment, Mikasa wanted to do what she would always do: to hug him, or to nuzzle his neck with her face. For a moment, everything felt normal, like the way it was supposed to be, but that was just that: a moment. It wasn't to last, and the reality of the situation quickly snapped her head back to the mess they were now both in.

Her smile faded. "Eren, what-"

"I'm getting you out of here."

Mikasa was silent for several moments, processing his words. "Do you have a plan?"

Eren's smile returned. "Nope."

A sigh passed her lips. She supposed Eren was just trying to be himself, to instill confidence in her, but she could see no future where this was going to end well for either of them. If Eren was caught trying to free her, he'd be in as much trouble as she would be. "Eren, I don't think this is a good idea. I mean, what's going to happen if we get caught?"

"I won't let that happen."

"Eren-"

"Listen to me, Mikasa." Eren placed one of his hands on her chin, tilting her head upward to look her directly in the eyes. "I don't have a solid plan, but we don't have time to overthink this. There are higher powers in the CCG that are interested in you, and I have no idea what they want." His eyes hardened as he spoke. "I'm not going to lose you, Mikasa. I'm not. I don't care if I get in trouble, but I'm going to get you out of here alive. That's a promise." His hands dropped from their position on her face. "Besides, it's not like I'm going to be put on death row. If I get fired or even arrested, so be it, but I want to make sure that you're safe."

The tears the had began to pool in Mikasa's eyes began to slide down her cheeks. "Eren, I..." Her voice trailed off.

Eren took her hand in his. "Do you trust me?"

She nodded. "Of course."

Eren just gave her a small encouraging smile, revealing a set of handcuffs from somewhere on his body. "You'll have to wear these, but they're not for ghouls, so you should be able to break them if it comes down to it." As he spoke, he moved behind her to gently take hold of her wrists and loosely lock the cuffs around each limb. "I'm going to take you down to the ghoul compactor. Armin said something about there being a drainage channel in it that leads out of the prison. You're going to jump down into it and I'll make sure that nobody activates it in the meantime." He fiddled with the cuffs again for a second, tightening them so that they wouldn't slip off her wrists. "Are these too tight?"

"They're fine," Mikasa replied as Eren stepped out in front of her again. "Does Armin knows what's going on?"

Eren grimaced. "He wasn't exactly supportive."

At those words, Mikasa was filled was fresh apprehension. "Eren..."

"You'll be fine. I promise."

After that, no more words were spoke between them. Eren walked behind her, grabbing one of her forearms occasionally to steer her down a hallway or onto a staircase. They passed numerous people and Mikasa kept her eyes down, but none of them so much as gave them a second glance. Apparently, it wasn't too awfully uncommon to see ghouls being escorted though the halls of the prison by guards and Investigators. Mikasa was almost getting the smallest bit of hope that this might go off without a hitch, that they might actually be able to quietly slip past all the hurdles without making a scene.

That was, until they finally made it to the room that housed the ghoul compactor. The compactor was a large steel box set low in the ground that was at least twelve feet deep, and fairly wide. As Mikasa peered down into it, Eren slowly stepped toward the control panel. Most of the functions weren't labeled, and he had zero desire to mess around with it.

"Do you think that the channel is open?" Mikasa asked.

Eren was slow to answer as he eyed the motherboard. "I'm no-" Eren's voiced was drowned out by the sudden sound of an alarm blaring. Eren cursed under his breath; it was amazing how quickly they had noticed Mikasa was missing. He looked over at Mikasa for a second, who look incredibly unnerved by the presence of the blaring horn. Quickly, Eren stepped over to her and helped her out of the handcuffs.

"Get ready to jump. I just wish I knew for sure if the tube was open or not..."

Mikasa furrowed her brows; it was pretty dark down in the bottom of the chamber. She was certain she might be able to make it out if she could activate her kakugan, but she was still hyper aware of Eren standing nearby. He might of accepted that she was a ghoul, but that didn't mean that he was comfortable with seeing her actually use a kagune. Suddenly, Mikasa could hear a sound deep within the compactor accompany the alarm. The ghoul looked up to where Eren was standing by the control panel, then back into the hole again, where she could see a tiny shred of light at the very bottom.

"That did it!" she called to Eren, who sighed in deep relief.

"Get out of Shinganshina," Eren told her softly as he stepped by her side again. "Please, don't stay here. Once you're out, get as far from this city as you possibly can." Gently, Eren wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a hug that she returned, burying her tearful face into his shoulders. "Wherever you go, take care of yourself. Don't let anything like this happen to you ever again. Just make me that one last promise."

Finally, Mikasa managed to lift her head up from it's position pressed against his body. "Are you sure you don't want this ring back? It belonged to your mother."

She could feel him shake his head. "Both me and my mom would never want anyone but you to have that ring."

As Mikasa opened her mouth to reply, the alarm suddenly stopped and footsteps could be heard approaching them. Eren tightened his hold on her for a few seconds. Finally, he pulled back, situating himself between her and the intruder. The man that now stood in the doorway was someone Eren recognized, but had never met personally before. He went by Kenny the Ripper, Shinganshina's Division Commander in the CCG.

As the man slowly stepped toward them, his face contorted into a smirk. "Well, isn't this just a beautiful little textbook love story. The Ghoul Investigator falls for the ghoul, and he stages a dramatic rescue to save her. Gag me."

Eren's glare hardened as Kenny approached them, but he could feel Mikasa tense up behind him. He frowned, looking at her out of the corner of his eyes. "Don't worry about it. I'll-"

"He's a ghoul," she deadpanned. When Eren fully turned to look at Mikasa, she was also glaring at the Commander.

"What do you mean he's a ghoul? He's the D-"

"He's a ghoul," Mikasa repeated. "I can smell it on him. I can tell the scent of a human from a ghoul a mile away, and that man is not human."

Kenny let out a harsh bark of laughter. "You seem surprised by that."

"I can't say that I'm too thrilled that there exists ghouls who would stoop so low as to join an organization that serves no purpose but to commit murder."

He laughed once again. "What's wrong, Mikasa? Did old David never talk about me? Did he never tell you about your own uncle?" When Mikasa's glare vanished, replaced quite abruptly by confusion, he sighed. "Now, that is a tragic story. A ghoul as powerful as he was, and he insisted on playing dress-up with the humans. He even disowned his own son because Levi had a differing opinion of humans than he did."

"Levi completely snapped!" Mikasa suddenly barked back. She seemed to have gotten over her shock of the idea that this ghoul who also happened to be a top-ranking Ghoul Investigator was in fact related to her, and was instead rushing to the defense of her father. "He attacked a CCG headquarters by himself and barely made it out alive. If they had found out his identity, our entire family would have been killed."

"Must be a trait of bullheadedness that runs in your part of the family, eh?"

Mikasa stiffened. "What I did was different."

"You got your ass thrown in jail and your parents were killed because of you. There's no difference."

"At least my parents would never commit murder."

Kenny arched an eyebrow at her. "A murderer, am I? That's an interesting choice of words there, Mikasa." As he spoke, his kagune began to emerge from his body. Four long dark blue tails that seemed to be coated with an entire layer of razor-sharp plates began to snake around his body, posing at his hips, as a pair of wings not unlike Mikasa's grew from his shoulders. They had the same wispy appearance, but the colors were drastically different. The were a turquoise blue in the center, and the farther the wings spread out from the center, they're took on the same shade of cobalt the tentacles had.

Mikasa poised herself to brace for an attack, but stopped when Eren suddenly brought out his quinque. "You get out of here!" he ordered Mikasa. "This is your only chance. I'll fight him." For a second, Eren turned his head to look at her, but his display of confidence was cut off in a second when Kenny struck him full-on in the torso with one of his broad wings, sending the brunet careening into a wall on the opposite side of the room.

Before Mikasa could even process what was happening, the ghoul had turned on her as well, delivering a well-placed kick to her gut that easily knocked her off the floor into the ghoul compactor. Kenny finally stopped when he landed lightly next to the control panel.

Pressing his hand to his head in a place where he could feel blood leaking, Eren sat up just in time to see the hatch on the compactor close. It took him seconds to work out that Mikasa must have been inside of it, as she was nowhere else to be seen, and he was instantly on his feet, firing off blasts from his quinque toward Kenny. Without even looking at him, the ghoul lifted his tails to deflect the blasts with no effort whatsoever.

Eren scowled and continued to move closer to Kenny, still attempting to hit him with any sort of blast from the weapon, but he was consistently blocking them; it was barely phasing him. Finally, the older man pushed one last button and Eren could feel his heart drop into his gut when the machine roared to life.

"MIKASA!" he cried out, quickly gritting his teeth as he aimed another blast at Kenny. The ghoul was able to easily sidestep the attack to finally turn and face Eren. Hatred burned thorough his green eyes like wildfire when that insufferable smirk reappeared on Kenny's face. "I'll kill you!" he seethed.

"I'd hurry up if I were you. She doesn't have much time left." When a snort of laughter actually came from the ghoul's mouth, Eren lunged at him. He was incredibly aware of the sound of the compactor in the background as he pressed a small latch on the side of the quinque's handle, which expanded the wing-shaped blade protruding from the top and bottom of the canon. The sudden emergence of the blades caught him completely off guard. Kenny moved to block the attack with his wings, but the quinque easily slashed it's way through the thin appendage. With the wing doing almost nothing to protect his skin from the weapon, Eren landed a thick, gushing wound directly on the ghoul's head, running diagonally along the entire length of his face.

Kenny staggered back for a second, but the smirk on his lip never once faded. "Not bad, kid. You just saved your own life with that little stunt."

With one of his wings essentially halved and being completely blind in the eye that had been in the direct line of the quinque's cut, Eren was a bit surprised at the speed the ghoul was able to dive for him. He managed to get off another shot from the canon, which was again blocked by three of his tails, while one of them slashed at his leg. Eren noticed the lunge, but was far too low to react from an attack from an ukaku, and the second he fell to the ground, one of the tails hooked onto the quinque and tore it from his hands. Before Eren could struggle more, one of the tails pressed into his back, pinning him to the ground as he felt a pair of handcuffs being fastened around his wrists.

Kenny let out a sigh, as he stood fully upright again. "There. Just relax for a minute and we'll be able to move on."

Eren immediately began to pull at the small chain holding his wrists together, as if he was expecting to be able to break them. Panic was quickly seizing control of his mind, of every inch of his body, and all he cared about was getting Mikasa out of there. Tears pooled in his eyes and he tried to sit upward, but the tail kept him pinned firmly down.

Eren's voice was small when he spoke. "Please, don't do this. Don't kill her. She didn't do anything wrong."

He got no response from Kenny, whose blue eyes remind forward on the compactor.

"She didn't want this!" he shouted. "It...it was my idea. I forced her to try and escape. I'm the one that should be down in that damn machine, not Mikasa." Now tears began to fall from his face and onto the ground. "Please, I'll do anything!" A sob broke his pleas. "Please...not Mikasa. Anyone in the world but Mikasa."

He tried to move out of the hold. His fists clenched in desperation as he finally looked at the chamber directly ahead of him, the reality of the situation weighing down on him worse than the tail holding him to the ground. This was all his fault. If he had just listened to Armin, if he hadn't been so damn stupid. But this wasn't some minor little mistake that would result in Mikasa slapping him on the shoulder or Armin rolling his eyes and calling him an idiot. Mikasa was going to die and it was entirely because of him.

He tried to lurch from the ghoul's hold one last time, as the machine finally went silent.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'm so sorry, Mikasa.

* * *

All the wind left her lungs in a harsh gasp of pain as Mikasa's back hit the hard steel of the bottom of the chamber. Almost immediately, her nostrils were assailed with the potent scent of blood from the unfathomable number of ghouls that had also lost their lives in the same machine she was now laying in. Splashes of red painted the walls and floor of the compactor, crusted over in some places where there was more than blood left behind by a highly unfortunate soul. It was a very grim reminder of the purpose of the ghoul compactor, though Mikasa really didn't need such a reminder at that particular instant. Mikasa only had seconds to take it in before she could hear movement at the top of the pit she was in. She looked up, only to see the light becoming smaller as a hatch was closed and she was plunged into complete darkness.

For several seconds, all that could be heard in the stagnate air surrounding the ghoul was the sound of her own breathing and the steady thumping of her heart against her ribcage. The silence ended abruptly when a thunderous roar began to echo throughout the chamber, ringing in her ears with a deafening amount of volume that could have only been from the machine activating.

Mikasa could feel panic quickly starting to seize control of her brain, but she took a deep breath, willing herself to not totally succumb to the reality of the situation she was in. She still time to make it out of this alive and she wasn't going to give up until she was dead. Eren had mentioned that there was a drainage channel in the bottom of the compactor. Trying to ignore the sound assailing her eardrums from the closing walls, Mikasa could feel a slight pressure in her shoulderblades and tailbone as her kagune emerged. Her vision improved significantly with the appearance of the kakagan, but it was still hard to make out much in the darkness. Red and black eyes quickly scanned the floor, but it seemed to be solid the entire length of the room and she couldn't see any entrance to a potential drainage channel.

Fighting back the urge to curse, Mikasa turned her head upward, to the top of the compactor. She knew that if a tunnel was no longer an option, the only chance she had to escape impending certain death was up. At first, she found it difficult to catch any traction under her wings, as the air in the compactor was dead and stale, but after three powerful strokes, she was propelled toward the top of the chamber. As she shot toward the steel ceiling, Mikasa ran her three tails together to form her larger weapon, which she lashed out in front of her. As the white-and-red appendage made contact with the steel, however, Mikasa could feel an unexpected pain as numerous little spines penetrated the tail. The ghoul had only barely processed that the ceiling was protected by the layer of spikes before she felt a vicious shock jolt through her entire body and she fell back to the floor of the chamber, unable to move for several moments.

As she managed to sit back up, Mikasa could feel frightened tears start to jab at the back of her eyes. In frustration, she launched a small barrage of crystals toward the top of the compactor, but they merely bounced off the ceiling and landed on the ground a few feet from her. The cold steel of the walls pressed against one of her shoulderbaldes, and when she looked at the other wall, it was only a few feet away from her. Hyperventilating, Mikasa stood up and leaned into the closest wall. Her feet slid across the floor as the wall pushed her effortlessly towards the center of the room.

With tears now flowing freely down her face, Mikasa allowed her tails to split up again and she pressed two of them against the wall opposite of her, putting all of her strength into trying to resist the force of the machine. The third tail lashed out at the wall again and again, not even leaving a scratch on the quinque steel. Finally, with her body trembling in terror and her weak sobs echoing throughout the chamber, Mikasa wrapped herself up in her wings and hardened them, not exactly hopeful that it was going to make an ounce of difference.

The wings might as well had been water for all the difference it made, and Mikasa finally allowed her kagune to fade away as the wall was now weighing heavily on her chest and forehead.

So this is how it ends? Mikasa closed her eyes as more tears streamed down her cheek. If she was expecting some dramatic epiphany, an episode of her entire life flashing before her eyes, it didn't come - instead, all she could feel was an overwhelming sense of regret. Regret that she didn't tell those she loved about her identity as a ghoul long ago. Perhaps if she had just been honest, if she had been brave, none of this would have happened. So many people had been hurt by her cowardice and Mikasa couldn't help but punch the wall that was mere seconds from crushing her to death in frustration.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to nobody in particular, pressing her forehead into the wall that was starting to flatten her breasts tight against her chest.

The only noises she was capable of producing after that was weak sobs and panicked breaths, as she resigned herself to her fate and waited for death to take her.

Suddenly, silence.

The thunderous roar that had been echoing throughout the compactor ended as quickly as it had started.

It took Mikasa a moment to realize that the walls had stopped moving as well. Despite her trembling body, Mikasa manged to lean her head backwards enough to see that the hatch at the top of the ghoul compactor was still sealed tightly shut. She stood completely still, not entirely sure what to make of the sudden lack of movement from the walls. Had it malfunctioned or were they just toying with her? Mikasa didn't have a clear answer, but she couldn't help but feel the tiniest, fleeting sensation of relief. Even if it was only momentary, her body relaxed ever so slightly. After a few seconds, the walls began to move again, but this time they were moving away from her, giving her enough space for the terrified ghoul to slump to the ground in shock.

The floor was the next thing to move. Quickly, Mikasa stood up again and activated her kakagan for the second time, and as the floor continued it's movement, she could see a hole appearing off to the side of the room. She slowly walked toward it, eyes widening as she saw it was in fact a chute that led out of the compactor. It was the drainage channel that Eren had mentioned. Wiping the tears from her eyes, Mikasa couldn't help but smile in relief; she wasn't sure what exactly had happened with the machine, but she wasn't going to wait around for an answer either. She jumped down into the hole without a second thought and after a few seconds of sliding, Mikasa found herself in an empty room, staring at a man armed with a quinque.

For a moment, she thought that he was a Investigator, but that quickly changed when he stepped forward. He was a ghoul - she could tell instantly from the unmistakable scent he was giving off. Confusion quickly flooded to the front of her mind. Why the hell was there a ghoul carrying around a quinque standing around at the bottom of a prison's ghoul compactor? Before she could voice any thoughts, the ghoul that had approached her cleared his throat.

"You're coming with me." The demand got nothing but silence from Mikasa as she glared at him, her confusion very quickly shifting to a defensive anger. After all she had endured while in that prison, there was no way in hell on earth she was going to take orders from a ghouls that was clearly associated with the CCG. It was highly unsettling that someone as high up as Kenny was a ghoul in the first place - the fact that there seemed to be even more ghouls then just him was downright disturbing, and Mikasa had no patience for any of her kin that would stoop to a level like that.

When she didn't answer, the ghoul continued to speak. "I sympathize that this has been a harrowing ordeal for you, and you probably have many questions right now. They will be answered in due time. For now, know this: you've been given a second chance and a highly desirable opportunity, so if I were you, I'd come quietly. We can do this calmly or we can take you by force. It's your choice."

Mikasa's only response to that was to glare at him, as her full kagune instantly burst from her body.

"Have it your way, then," the ghoul replied, his voice sounding incredibly exasperated. As he spoke, he brought out his own kagune - a dark tail shaped very similar to that of a sickle was emerging from his tailbone, wrapping it's way around his body to poise by his hip. Mikasa moved to prepare herself for a fight.

Suddenly, she felt something heavy collide with the side of her head, knocking her off her feet in a split second. Mikasa blinked a few times, heavily disorientated, and barely processed the ukaku ghoul that landed next to the bikaku user before she dashed at her again. The ghoul's blunt wings charged into the side of her head a second time, this time sending sliding into one of the walls in the small room and landing on her stomach.

As she moved to put her arms under her body to drag herself back up to her feet, Mikasa was pinned firmly to the ground by unexpected weight on her wings. The ukaku was standing on the appendages. Mikasa smoothed her tails out to form three blades that charged at the other female ghoul, but her attacked was stopped when the bikaku that had spoken to her earlier was there to exchange blows with her. The two ghouls' tails collided numerous times, and despite the fact that Mikasa's tails outnumbered his, she couldn't seem to make any progress, as he was able to expertly parry every blow she sent him way.

A pair of hands pulled her arms behind her back while she was distracted by the bikaku and Mikasa could feel something hard began to fuse around her wrists, as she was very much aware that there was a third ghoul that was literally growing their kagune around her hands. She was completely unable to budge her arms, as the kagune remained attached to the ghoul restraining her and she was pulled into a kneeing position as the other two ghouls finally backed off.

Mikasa squirmed a bit and tried to writhe away from the ghoul's hold, but quickly realized that it wasn't making any sort of progress whatsoever so she begrudgingly stopped moving to glare at the two other figures standing just opposite of her. Her eyes watched the female ghoul as she stepped away toward a small stand off to the side of the room and began to rummage through it for a moment. Mikasa had no idea what she was doing and it made her highly uneasy, but there wasn't a lot she could do, as the part of kagune on the ghoul behind her that wasn't wrapped around her wrists was pinning her tails to the ground. The only thing she had was her wings, but she knew that wasn't going to do her an ounce of good. She couldn't move and any crystals she could potentially fire off would be easily blocked by the other two ghouls.

"Struggling is pointless," the bikaku warned her when he saw her watching the female ghoul. "You're just going to exhaust yourself. We have no desire to harm you, but if it comes to that, we'll take you with injuries. Sit tight. This will be over soon enough."

Though her anger, Mikasa felt true apprehension. Clearly, these ghouls had done this before. They had known exactly how to ambush her and in what way to completely cripple every movement she had made. Finally, the ukaku turned back toward her and Mikasa saw what the female ghoul was doing. She was holding in her hands syringe filled with an all-too-familiar red fluid.

Mikasa immediately tried to scramble to her feet, but the ghoul holding her applied enough pressure pushing her toward the ground that she remained stuck on her knees. With her squirming doing no real good, Mikasa glared back up at the ghoul only a few feet from her, her jaw set in determination. The ukaku had a smirk on her face as the ghoul restraining Mikasa suddenly grabbed hold of her head with their hands, prying one of her eyes open between a thumb and an index finger.

As they glared at each other, both of Mikasa's wings coated themselves in a thick layer of maroon crystals that fired off of both appendages within seconds of them forming. Not even the ukaku had the time to react to the sudden emergence of the projectiles, and dozens of them penetrated her body from head to toe. The ghoul let out numerous howls of pain as she staggered backwards, eventually collapsing on the ground as she clutched at her bloodied mess of a face.

The male bikaku quickly rushed to her side and said something to the ukaku that Mikasa couldn't hear, before he nodded, picking up the syringe and leaving the agonized ghoul in her position on the floor.

As he approached her, Mikasa tried to fire off another round of the deadly crystals, but the ghoul lifted his tail to his face, adjusting it as needed to deflect the barrage almost completely. A few of the projectiles grazed his arms as they flew past him, but he didn't act like the pain phased him in the slightest.

When it became evident to Mikasa that the crystals weren't going to do her any good, she reluctantly allowed the wings to regain their previous wispy form. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she tried to pull away from the ghoul restraining her, but the kagune kept her held firmly in place and there wasn't much she could do besides try her hardest to bite back her fear as the bikaku raised the needle to her exposed eyeball. When the object was mere centimeters from making contract, the ghoul paused for just a second before viciously ramming the needle into her eye.

Tears immediately began to form and she cried out. The ghoul let the syringe sit in place for a couple seconds before he even began to press the plunger to inject the Rc suppressants into her body. After several more agonizing moments, he ripped the needle out with as much force as he had stuck it in. The fresh pain was fleeting, as her eyes began to heal almost immediately, but that didn't stop the ghoul from raising his tail to her uninjured eyeball. Mikasa flinched away as he poised the sickle, very clearly preparing to deliver it into her eye socket.

"Don't." The voice that spoke was the ghoul behind her, who Mikasa then realized to be female as well. "Old Reiss will have your head if you injure her before he gets a chance to speak with her."

The bikaku ghoul glared at the ghoul behind Mikasa. "But she-"

"Relax," she cut him off. "Emma will be fine. We still have a job to do." As the ghoul behind her stood up, she forced Mikasa to stand as well, whose kagune had faded away since the Rc suppressants burned their way through her body. The male ghoul gave her one last glare before turning back toward the ukaku that she had injured earlier. A soft sigh managed to pass Mikasa's lips when she was forced to move forward.

She had no idea what was going on, but she had a very strong suspicion that whatever it was had been planned. That ghoul compactor hadn't malfunctioned - she had been spared and then forced straight into a trap.


	14. Jailbreak

The apartment Armin had once shared with his two best friends in the world was hauntingly silent. As much as Armin had been annoyed in the past by the excessively loud noises of Eren's and Mikasa's late-night romantic encounters, or even the sound of Eren's inhuman snoring, he would have given anything to have been able to hear either of those things again. He tried not to break down again for the fifth time that day as the news played the story that had been circulating nonstop for hours: the simply tragic tale of the Ghoul Investigator that had turned his back on the CCG to attempt to free a murderous, dangerous, bloodthirsty ghoul from prison, only to have her turn on him and kill him before she herself was killed by a guard on duty.

It was a terrible tragedy, the story of what would always happen if a human dared to trust a ghoul, but it was also a blatant lie. Armin didn't believe a word of it - he knew that Mikasa would never in a million years have turned on Eren. But that didn't change the fact that Eren had just vanished, and he didn't have the slightest idea as to where to begin to look for him. Armin had never really thought of the CCG as overly corrupt, but the fact that Eren had disappeared after a failed attempt to rescue her painted a drastically different picture. A small sigh passed his lips. Even if he did by some miracle manage to find Eren again, it wouldn't change Mikasa's fate. She had still been killed, and that harsh realization was more than enough to bring tears to his eyes.

* * *

 

A small group of four ghouls stood outside the branch building of the CCG in Shinganshina. They hung off to the side, hidden by the shadow of the skyscraper as their leader, an incredibly tall blond man, kept his brown eyes focused on the very top of the structure. He was waiting for a signal. For a moment, his gaze fell to his shorter companions: another short-haired blonde, a brunette with her long brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, and a male with his ash blond head shaved into a buzz cut. All of the ghouls were dressed in the same uniform: a skin-tight black suit that clung to them perfectly, molded to every muscle, every curve of their bodies. The only difference between the suits is that there was a gap in the fabric depending on the ghoul wearing it, giving them room to bring their kagunes out without tearing it. Each of the outfits also featured a hooded cowl that hid that majority of the ghoul's face, though they were all pulled down.

"You all know the drill," the blond male grunted, brown eyes resting on the brunette and the ash blond. "Connie and Sasha, you two will provide a diversion. Nanaba and I will provide cover as needed."

"Just remember that you're districting the Investigators, not eating them." Her blue eyes rested on Sasha pointedly.

"Oh, come one, I don't do it that often," Sasha huffed.

"The Doves in this city have already suffered heavy losses," the leader reminded his younger companions. "We want to pull this off without making the lives of the ghouls living here a living a hell more so than it already is. Only kill if you absolutely have to."

"Relax, Mike," Connie said with a grin, clapping a hand on Sasha's shoulder. "We got this."

Mike wished he could share in their enthusiasm, but he'd been through this enough times to know how easily it could all go south. Still, it was as sound a plan as any other Erwin had come up with. Create a scene at the HQ and draw the attention of the majority of the Investigators away from the prison so the only thing Levi's squad would have to deal with were the guards that only carried guns. If Connie and Sasha were good at anything, it was making a scene. The Scouting Legion had recruited them by chance after freeing them both from a prison and they had proved to be quite a duo when you could actually get them to focus long enough to take a situation seriously.

Finally, a silhouette appeared on the top of the HQ for a moment before the winged ghoul took off into the air.

"Okay, let's go!" Mike prompted. "Wait until Nanaba gets us to the roof, then you two can head inside." Connie and Sasha both saluted him in a very overemphasized manner and he found himself rolling his eyes as Nanaba's wings appeared and she somehow managed to lift his taller form in her arms, before beating her powerful wings against the sky. It took some effort, but she eventually got them both airborne, though her movements were significantly slower than they would have been if he'd just been able to fly himself up.

Once they touched the roof, Sasha looked over to her best friend. "Ready to work some magic?"

"Just like we rehearsed, of course."

With that, the two ghouls reached down into the bags on the ground beside them and each pulled out a mask. As far as design went, they looked almost identical: two full-faced masks shaped like the head of eagles. There was a meticulous attention to detail on the engraved ridges that formed feathers, and a ridged texture to form the razor-sharp beaks. The eye were big and black. The biggest contrast was the color of the two masks. Sasha's was completely white, with a solid yellow beak - the coloration of a bald eagle. Connie's more resembled a golden eagle, largely brown with streaks of black, tan and white weaved throughout the head, and a yellow beak that was tipped with black. Both bird-shaped heads nodded, as they lifted their hoods up in unison, and they stepped through the front door together.

At first, nobody paid them much attention, too focused on their own work, however, that changed abruptly when the two ghouls finally passed the Rc scanners that served as a deterrent to keep their kind out of buildings owned by the CCG. The second Connie, who was slightly ahead of Sasha, passed the detector, an ear-splitting alarm began to blare through the lobby they were now standing in. In a matter seconds, they had gained the undisclosed attention of every human in the room, as they were all staring at them, clearly not sure how to react to having two ghouls standing in the middle of the lobby of the CCG branch headquarters.

Both of them crossed their arms across their chests as they stood back-to-back, completely surrounded by dumbstruck humans. A few of them seemed to have finally gained their senses enough to back away from the ghouls, but it quickly became clear that none of them were Investigators, especially considering they hadn't tried to brutally murder the both of them. A couple seemed to have guns with Q-bullets that they aimed at the intruders, but that wasn't a huge concern to Connie or Sasha.

Finally, a woman and two men stormed into the lobby, all three of them holding sliver briefcases. The unarmed people finally seemed to take that as their cue to back off, and the gave the five figures their space. Turning their heads toward the newcomers, both ghouls brought their kagunes out at the same time.

A huge pair of wings sprouted from Connie's shoulders, solid, blindingly white and splashed throughout with wisps of a charcoal black. Sasha's kagune took the form of four silver tentacles that emerged from her lower back. They were long enough to snake several feet around her body and each were ended by small serrated spears that was shaped similarity to mandibles, however, as soon as the small jaws appeared, she folded them down against the the tentacles so that they resembled very long, razor-sharp spears, like most rinkakus.

"The Blood Eagles," one of the Investigators said, deadpan, and Connie turn toward him.

"So you've heard of us?" He playfully elbowed Sasha. "Our reputation is getting a bit out of hand, eh? They've even heard of us in dead-end towns like Shinganshina."

The Investigator that had spoke was blond with an undercut and brown eyes that were glaring at both of them. "You don't have a reputation. You're overconfident murderers that have run around rampant for way longer than necessary."

Sasha snorted, and her and Connie pressed their backs together once more. "The person that get paid to commit genocide is calling us murderers. I smell a hypocrite." She sniffed the air loudly. "That, and a human that hasn't bathed nearly recent enough, but mostly a hypocrite."

Suddenly, the door at the front of the building flew open once more, and four more armed Investigators stormed into the lobby, completely surrounding the pair of ghouls. Connie faced the new group of Investigators, taking care to note their number. Given how many Investigators had already died in this city, he knew there couldn't be too many more on duty. As predicated, they had all swarmed the HQ when they had learned that it was under attack. Connie gently nudged Sasha with one of his wings, giving her the warning that more had turned up. Keep them taking. That was the plan. They had to buy Levi's squad as much time as physically possible, and the longer they kept up the pointless banter, the better.

Sasha peeked her head around to face the new group for just a moment, and a smile spread across her lips that none of them could see. "So, what about you fellas, huh? Do we need to introduce ourselves?" She could see a few of them tense their hold on their weapons, but for some reason none of them seemed like they wanted to attack them. Maybe they were planning on capturing them alive - that was the only conclusion Sasha could come to. Their affiliation to the Scouting Legion was no secret, and if there was one group the CCG both hated and were starving for information on, it was the Scouting Legion.

When she got no response, the smile on her face widened, as she pressed her back even tighter to Connie's, her arms folded across her chest. "I'll take that as a yes. In that case, I only have one thing to say: prepare for trouble."

"And make it double," Connie immediately chimed in, the well-rehearsed line flowing perfectly with Sasha's.

"To protect the world from devastation."

"To unite all peoples within our nation."

"To denounce the evils of truth and love."

"To extend our reach to the stars ab-"

"Shut up!" One of the Investigators finally brought out her quinque, pointing the long blade at both of the ghouls. "Both of you shut the fuck up!"

"Well, that's just rude," Sasha huffed.

"We spent hours working on that just for the sake of entertaining you assholes." He shook his head in mock disappointment "The nerve of some people, I tell you." He looked back at Sasha for a moment. "She's almost as salty as you were that time you lost like three Growlithes in about an hour."

"That was bullshit and you know it. I've gotten a Snorax with triple the CP in one pokeball, but no, a damn Growlithe can't-"

"Alright, that's enough." A new voice filled the lobby, his voice deep and firm. A middle-aged man with longer black hair stepped forward, fixing them both in a glare with harsh green eyes. "I have no idea what the hell you two are up to, but don't think that I doubt you're trying to pull something." His eyes narrowed. "No ghouls are dumb enough to just walk into a building like this."

"I resent that statement," Connie replied, crossing his arms once again. "I am proud of my ability to make good judgment calls. I-"

"Be quiet," the Investigator ordered, cutting him off as he brought out his own quinque. "Regardless of what your intentions are, you're both under arrest. If you cooperate, your lives will be extended. If you resist, we won't hesitate to kill you." As the Investigator had been speaking, Connie had very slowly pointed the flat side of his underwings upward, toward the ceiling. The humans hadn't seemed to take much notice in the subtle movement, and he gave Sasha a very gentle nudge with his elbow. Her response was to very quickly snake two of her tentacles around his waist, and in a second, the blinding whiteness of his wings was amplified as they began to glow. However, well before any of the Investigators had any chance to react, the glowing focused itself into a single blast of energy fired off both the wings at once.

The blast made contact with the ceiling above them, completely obliterating the floors all the way to the top of the final story of the tall building. While all of the Investigators brought out their quinques to protect themselves from the falling debris, Connie flapped his wings and shot upward into the newly created hole, carrying Sasha with him. They stopped when they finally hit the level Mike and Nanaba were waiting on.

"You two really dragged that out," Mike commented.

"That's what we do best," Sasha laughed.

Connie gave a half-hearted laugh as well, but his tone was laced with exhaustion. Ukaku ghouls were notorious for their poor stamina, but Connie was a special case in that regard. He was an oddity - although he did have crystals he used in longer fights, Connie was an ukaku that was capable of concentrating his energy into devastating blasts of nothing but sheer, raw power, but it left him totally exhausted after only one use.

Sasha's brow furrowed as she quickly looked around the room, only to find a man standing off the side of the room by an overturned desk, eyes wide in terror as he stared at the small group of ghouls. Sasha approached him, one of her tentacles raised as the three serrated edges that formed the mandibles grew from the side of the appendage on command.

"Do you want to help my friend out?" she asked the human, her tone laced with very genuine concern that seemed to put the man even more on edge. "I'm a bit worried about him. He's weak and I don't really want him to die." Her voice fell, sadness very evident. "So if you could help us out, I'd really appreciate it."

The man said nothing; he just continued to stare at her.

A small smile that nobody could see behind the mask turned her lips upward. "Thank you," she grinned. As the tentacle moved again, the man's eyes slammed shut, but that didn't stop Sasha for a second. The kagune quickly penetrated the flesh on the human's shoulder, mandibles coming together to tear a small chuck of meat from his body. The man's screams were not unnoticed, and Sasha hastily pulled back.

"Sorry, sorry!" she muttered, moving back over to Connie with the bleeding meat still in her kagune. She quickly handed it to him.

Connie gave her a smile, lifting his mask up far enough to stick the morsel in his mouth. "Thanks." Within seconds of consuming the meat, Connie was back on his feet again, his kagune poised and read to strike. Sasha peeked her head over the hole he had created. All lot of them but one seemed to have vanished, which meant they were probably searching for them. The one with the undercut was lying on the ground, somewhat dazed. A grin spread across Sasha's face as an idea as to how to further escalate the little fight they were headed toward. Projecting her voice loudly into the hole below her, Sasha began to scream at the Investigator with vocalizations that sounded tauntingly like a chicken. As she continued to cluck at the humans, she carefully vaulted over the edge of the hole and stuck her kagune into the top of the very bottom story, using her mandibles as hooks to anchor herself into the ceiling.

As she fell, Connie took over the act of making noises at the Investigators, though his were a a lot more varied. A loud moo was soon followed by something that strongly resembled monkeys hooting, then dolphins chirping.

Before her kagune cut off her decent, Sasha was hanging from the ceiling, her face mere inches from the face of the blond Investigator. "I have a confession to make," she murmured to him. "I love you. You are the most amazing person I've ever had the privilege of meeting, and I'd be so happy if you'd do me the honor of becoming my bride."

The Investigator's brown eyes glared upward at her angrily, before he swung at her with the blade of his quinque. Sasha quickly detached herself from the ceiling, and jumped back. As he approached her, Sasha took a few steps back.

"Shenzi-Marie, please," she pressed, "I know what you're thinking: we're too different, it would never work, what would the children look like?" The Investigator continued to glower at her as he tensed his hold on his weapon.

"Connie!" Mike pressed back up on the floor the other three ghouls were still standing on. "Me and Nanaba are going to intercept the Investigators before they get here. You stay with Sasha."

Connie saluted him before vaulting over the hole in the ground as well. He crossed his arms as he drifted down toward the two combatants

"Oi," he snapped at Sasha. "I saw her first, back the hell off my wife."

* * *

 

By the time Erwin, Levi, Hanji, and the three other ghouls that made up his squad had arrived at the prison, it was at least five minutes after Connie and Sasha had begun their diversion. They were all wearing the same uniform that Mike and his squad had been, with the exception of Hanji, who was also carrying a quinque with her. None of them were wearing their usual ghoul masks, as the five ghouls all had gas masks as a replacement to help deal with the inhalant Rc suppressants that Hanji had been notified of. The six of them were standing on the top of the prison, by the only entrance they knew of besides the front door: a small hatch on the very top that served as the exit to a ventilation system. Levi tore the hatch off the hole and quickly glanced down into the room below, seeing it largely unoccupied. One by one, all of them dropped into the prison.

Erwin glanced at the the three ghouls who made up Levi's group. "We'll start breaking ghouls out of their cells," he said. We want them to make as big of a scene as possible. Levi and Hanji will go for the control center to disable the Rc suppressant dispensers and deactivate the ghoul compactor."

As the two groups broke apart, Levi looked to Hanji. "Do even know where the hell this room is?"

"Don't you know me better than that?" she smirked.

"No," Levi deadpanned. "We have stepped straight into situations like this hundreds of times with you having no idea in hell where the fuck to go."

"It should be just down this hallway," she replied, as the two of them opened a door. "Whoops," Hanji snorted. The room they had entered had definitely not been the right door at all: they appeared to be in a lounge of some sort that was filled to the brim with guards. Several of them turned to look at her when she entered the room, but she quickly gave the guards an easygoing look. Fortunately, Levi was considerably shorter than her and he was standing in the back, so they couldn't get a clear look at the very distinct Scouting Legion uniform he was wearing. Without another word, she backed out of the room and they both hurried down the hallway as quickly as they could without the pace becoming suspicious.

"That was the wrong room," Levi informed her. "They'll probably be setting off an alarm soon."

"I find your lack of faith in me disturbing."

"You have no idea were the fuck we're going, do you?"

As if on cue, a guard suddenly appeared around the corner, though they had no idea if he'd been from the lounge or not. "Don't move or I'll kill you both!" he snapped, approaching them with a gun drawn.

Levi ignored the threat and rather brought his kagune out. The guard fired off a few shots, but Levi was able to deflect the shots with his wings. "Is that really all they give you to defend yourselves around here?" As he spoke, one of his tentacles slapped the gun out of his hands and another one lashed at the defenseless human's leg, knocking him over with ease. As he stood over the man, he poised all four of them at his chest. "You're going to show me where the hell the control room is," he informed the guard.

"Like hell," the man snapped back.

Hanji then stepped forward, and pulled the man back up to his feet. "Now, Levi, violence isn't a way to solve your problems." She looked back at the man. "Sorry about him - he has a Napoleon Complex. It makes him irritable when he encounters people taller than him. However," she gave the prison worker a smile, "it might be in your best effort to do as he says. You see, I'm looking for that control room, too, and we can be very persuasive."

"You're going to have to kill me before you get jack shit from me," he spat back. Hanji frowned at him for just a moment before giving him a vicious shove back toward the guardrail that encircled the center of the prison. He nearly fell off, but Hanji was quick to grab him by the collar of his shirt, letting him hang face-first overlooking the dark center of the pit that led hundreds of stories underground.

"Do you suppose a fall from this height would kill a person? We humans are awfully frail, after all."

"Why the hell are you doing this?" the man snapped instead. Hanji loosened her hold, letting him fall forward a few more inches.

"Alright!" he finally caved.

With a smile, Hanji pulling him back to level ground. "Lead the way."

On the other side of the prison, the first place that Erwin, Gunther, Eld and Aururo hit was the exercise room that Hanji had told them the location of. It was going to be the fastest way to possibly free a large numbers of ghouls at once, and they'd be quickly able to overwhelm the guards through sheer numbers along. From what Hanji had said, there was about fifty or so ghouls in that wide-open basin at any given time. It was also heavily guarded, but that was something they were more than prepared for. They opened the entrance to the balcony with a card key they'd stolen from one of many guards they had so far incapacitated and the second the door opened, they struck. Gunther, Eld and Aururo immediately began to dash along the balcony, each of them managing to knock out a guard before the rest of them even knew what was going on.

Soon, gunfire began to ring out, but all the bullets were effortlessly blocked with their kagunes. That was one fundamental issue with Q-bullets - they weren't effective against a kagune. The guns were a good deterrent to keep the imprisoned ghouls in line because they lacked energy and when combined with the Rc suppressants, a defenseless ghoul could easily be incapacitated by the shots, but it was a very different case against ghouls at full strength. Within a minute, every single guard in the room had been knocked out by the heavy blows form the ghouls. By the time the last guard had fallen, all the ghouls down in the steel basin were staring at the group that had so easily disarmed the entire room.

Erwin clapped his hands together as he finally addressed all the prisoners. "We've helped you, so now we need all of you to return a favor. This is an attack on this prison on behalf of the Scouting Legion. We're in the process of disabling the Rc suppressants in the air, so what I need for all of you is a bit of assistance. Make a scene. Bring out all of your kagunes. Free any other ghouls you pass by if you so wish, but the more noise you make, the easier it'll be for all of us to get out of here alive." As he spoke, Eld dropped down into the chamber and moved to open the door leading out into the cells. "We're headed toward the ghoul compactor - that's where you'll all be able to escape."

The second the door opened, flashes of colors of dozens of different kagunes began to appear in the sea of white. The ghouls that could fly moved to the balcony and took off that way, while the rest began to do exactly as asked and make an incredibly loud scene as they rushed out of the steel basin.

Not long after the more advanced security methods had been shut down, a blaring alarm had began to sound through the entire building, but by that time, the ghouls from the excise room had already laid waste to almost every cell in on the top several stories to the building. There was such an overwhelming about of ghouls running around that there wasn't much the guards to do at this point. several dozen had even already fled the building, and Levi and Hanji only had one more thing to do before they left: get Mikasa. The ghouls raising hell on the prison hadn't made it to her cellblock yet. Finally,they came to the call that Armin had led Hanji to only the day before. The second they had stepped into the relative quiet of Mikasa's cell, they both stopped dead.

"Well, that's a bit of a change," Hanji commented. The cell was absolutely wrecked; there was a mess of wires on the wall where the security camera normally would have been, and the glass wall that previously imprisoned Mikasa had been completely shattered. "Do you suppose she already made it out?"

"We should try to find a computer," Levi replied.

"They should have a office of some sort on this floor somewhere." As they made their way down the hallways, searching for any sort of database room, Hanji was secretly grateful that most of the prisons were laid out similarly. She'd broken into and worked in dozens of ghoul detention centers prior to this one, and most of them were nearly identical. It only took them a few minutes to find a room. It was guraded, but only took Levi seconds to take out the defenseless humans.

Hanji typed Mikasa's name into the database.

"Hm," Levi grunted once her file came up, for the picture of her that was attached to her record brought with it a huge block of red text sprayed horizontally over the image of her face: disposed. "That reeks of Rod Reiss," he deadpanned.

Hanji's eyes continued to scan the details of the file. "It says she was disposed of yesterday evening in the compactor."

"That's his game to a fucking T. I know exactly where to find her." Levi turned his blue eyes from the monitor. "The same old shit. Mikasa is still alive. I know she is."

"Do I see a hint of compassion for your baby sister showing through?" Hanji's voice had a highly mocking edge to it. "The stone-cold Levi Ackerman is going to risk his life to save his younger sister from the sinister clutches of the CCG's chairman? I am both impressed and somewhat unnerved by this new side of you."

"If you want to make it through that ghoul compactor alive, I suggest you shut up."

Hanji laughed. "The compactor it is, then." As the two stepped over the unconscious form of the guard just outside the door, Hanji took the lead, as she knew where the compactor was. "By the way, Levi, your threats don't really mean much when the end result would involving mashing me up into a messy paste. You and I both know you don't have the emotional capacity to handle a mess like that."

"Every second of my life is a mess when I'm in your presence," he deadpanned.

"I love you, too, she snorted.

* * *

Mikasa wasn't sure how long she had been sitting in darkness, but it had to have been at least a few hours. After being led out of the first room by those ghouls, she'd been quickly ushered into a small steel box embedded into the wall of the room the drainage channel dumped out into. The cell held nothing - it was just a dark space that was so cramped that she couldn't even stretch her legs out while sitting down. One of the ghouls had mentioned that they'd be back to pick her up later, but she didn't have clue how long ago that had been, or how much longer she'd be in here. Right as she leaned into a wall in the closet of a cell, planning on maybe resting after the ordeal she'd been through, light suddenly filled the sell again.

It was the same ghouls, minus the ukaku that she'd injured. They ordered her out of the cell, and one of them quickly fastened handcuff around her wrists. The walk to wherever they were leading Mikasa was short-lived, as she was guided toward a wall. Before her confusion could really take form, the male ghoul ran his finger over a section of the structure. His nails caught a tiny groove in the stainless steel, which slowly became a latch the more it was pulled from the wall. When it had finally taken the form of a handle, the ghoul pulled on it until a section of the wall came open, forming a doorway that melted seamlessly into the rest of the wall. Mikasa was prodded forward and the ghouls escorting her closed the door behind them as they entered the new area.

They were standing in what seemed to be an lounge of sorts. The room was heavily furnished, not unlike a waiting room in a hospital. The seating was cushy and luxurious, made up almost entirely of armchairs and sofas. One side of the room was covered in cabinets and a coffee maker was giving off a highly appealing scent that wafted throughout the area. Given the absolute slop that she had been fed over the last several weeks, Mikasa couldn't have ignored the smell even if she had tried. There was even a television on one of the walls. As we was led through the lounge, Mikasa became aware of another prominent scent: that of ghouls. There were numerous people throughout the room, talking, playing games, watching the television and reading, and it quickly became apparent they every single one of them were ghouls.

None of them paid the newcomers the tiniest bit of attention, as Mikasa was guided around the room and to a door on the opposite side. Apparently, seeing a ghoul being dragged by two other ghouls was a normal occurrence for them, and that did little to appease the negative feelings quickly creeping up on her. The next room was more like an office - there was a desk in the center of the room, a desk chair behind it, and a smaller chair directly in front of it. Mikasa felt no surprise whatsoever when the ghoul still restraining her released her hands and ordered her to sit down. After she was seated, the two female ghouls left the room, leaving Mikasa alone with the bikaku standing guard at the door.

After several long minutes of silence, she heard the door open again and finally a man took a seat directly opposite her. He was dark-haired, probably at least in his mid forties, with blue eyes. Mikasa blinked as a second form stepped up directly behind him, as she quickly recognized him as Kenny, the ghoul that had attacked her and Eren earlier, only now he was marred by an ugly-looking gash that ran diagonally across his entire face, completely taking out one of his eyes. Mikasa tensed up somewhat when he looked at her, but he rolled his remaining eye.

"Relax. I was never going to kill you. I just had to make it look convincing to cover my own ass. You're way too valuable to just crush to death like a gnat." Mikasa continued to glare at him, but it lessoned ever so slightly as another thought quickly crossed her mind: if he was standing here, that must have meant that he had overpowered Eren.

"What did you do to Eren?" she demanded before she could even begin to compose herself. "If you hurt him, I'll-"

An eyebrow arched at her. "Calm your ass down, girl. I didn't kill him. He's still very much alive. I'd put my own skin first if I was in your position right now."

Mikasa continued to glare at him, but calmed down ever so slightly at the knowledge that Eren was at least alive.

Finally, the man sitting at the desk cleared his throat rather pointedly. As Mikasa finally looked at him, the man was giving her a smile that was warm and inviting and it instantly put her on edge.

"Ms. Ackerman," he prompted, "I've been eagerly waiting a chance to meet you face-to-face. I've heard a lot about your abilities and how you choose to use them." As he spoke, the man looked to the ghoul standing behind him and waved his hand toward the door. Her supposed uncle rolled his eye, but stalked away. "My name is Rod Reiss. I'm the current chairman of the Commission of Counter Ghoul."

Mikasa felt her face fall slightly, as she was certain that there was no good coming out of the position she was currently in with that news. "If this is about all those Investigators, I didn't-"

"It's not." Mikasa's confusion just deepened when the man's smile didn't fade. "I of course have no way to prove your innocence in that matter, but this is not about the deaths of a few rookie Investigators. Rookies die every single day. It's nothing new. This is more to do with your name and your kagune."

If the man noticed the harsh look Mikasa gave him in response to that attitude, he didn't show it.

"In the CCG, we use the term Chimera to describe a ghoul with two Rc types that occurs naturally without resorting to cannibalism, or a quinque made from such a ghoul. We haven't the slightest idea what causes a Chimera to come to be, but you come from a long line of them. I've had much history with your family, Mikasa. Your brother Levi and your uncle Kenny have both worked under me before, and I'd be very eager to continue that streak with you."

Mikasa blinked at him, more than a little shocked that Levi would have willingly affiliated himself with humans of any kind at any point. "Levi hates people, and he especially hates the CCG."

"You haven't seen Levi in a while, have you? A lot can change in a person in a handful of years. With the proper guidance, even vengeance can be formed into something usable."

Mikasa was quite certain she didn't want to know what he meant by that, as this conversation was making her more uncomfortable by the second, but it wasn't like she had much of a choice but to sit there and hear him out.

"Your uncle is an even better example of what a ghoul can become if they play their cards right and allow themselves to be taught."

"I don't want to join the CCG," Mikasa deadpanned. Piece by piece, the image was starting to make sense to her. She had been 'killed', only to be allowed to escape through the ghoul compactor and then delivered straight to this man who was trying to talk her into something she wanted no part of. The CCG clearly employed ghouls as well as humans, and it was clearly a well-kept secret that almost none of the Investigators knew about. She had no feasible idea why a ghoul would actually want to do something like that, but she didn't have the energy to question it. All Mikasa knew was that all hell would freeze over before she was used as a weapon against other ghouls.

As Rod opened his opened his mouth to answer her, the door opened again. Kenny had returned, this time carrying two dishes in his hand: a small saucer that had a tiny piece of something on it, and a steaming coffee cup that was giving off the same alluring scent that had filled the first room they'd walked through. When Kenny sat the two dishes on the desk directly in front of her, it took Mikasa only seconds to work out that the plate was holding a very small bit of human meat.

"Go on," Rod told her. "I'm sure that you're hungry and the coffee will be a nice treat after being imprisoned for a month." For a moment, Mikasa thought she might have possessed the self-restraint to resist the smells assailing her nostrils, but the longer she tried to ignore the scent of the food and the snarling of her stomach, she couldn't fight the instinct of a starved ghoul. After a few seconds spent looking pointedly away from the tempting morsel, she caved and grabbed the flesh, quickly downing it in one bite and following it with the coffee. She hadn't had anything to eat as satisfying as that tiny piece of meat had been in well over a month.

When she finally looked back up at Rod, he was still smiling at her. "And there's plenty more where that come from, Mikasa."

Her eyes remained harsh. "I already told you that I'm not-"

"You wouldn't be working for the CCG," he explained, cutting her off. "I employ a group of ghouls who work for me, and me alone. They have no affiliation to the CCG whatsoever. They're called the Military Police, and all they do is help me to maintain the status quo when it comes to relations between humans and ghouls."

Mikasa's eyes hardened. "What the hell do you mean by that?"

Rod returned her serious look. "You know exactly what I mean by that. Humans and ghouls cannot coexist in a world where the CCG does not also exist. The power imbalance between ghouls and humans is so great that if the CCG didn't exist, mankind would be totally at the mercy of ghouls." He paused for a moment. "However, not all ghouls are that ruthless, and that's an unfortunate truth that the CCG has always worked hard to keep out of the minds of people. If people start to sympathize with ghouls, it could quickly lead to the destruction of the CCG, which would be disastrous to humanity. That's where these ghouls come in. All the ghouls who make up the Military Police are ghouls who were freed from incarceration and certain death in a ghoul prison, much like you were."

"That's how Levi came to us," Kenny piped up from behind Rod. "He spent months in a prison in Sina, and pledged his service in exchange for freedom. It didn't exactly last, but you're in the same position right now that he was in years ago."

"What exactly do you mean by service?" Mikasa finally asked.

"When I need a ghoul to stir up trouble, or to remind a calm town why ghouls are terrible, they attack, kill, maim, or do anything I tell them to do." Rod's face was as deadpan as Mikasa's. "In exchange for their service, they are quietly freed and live in luxury that only someone as wealthy as I could provide for them. That's what I am offering you, Mikasa. You'll never be hungry again. You'll never have to live in fear of the CCG again. You'll have anything your heart could ever desire, and all you have to do is attack strangers when I ask you to."

Mikasa immediately shook her head. "No."

Rod's face was largely unreadable. "Are you certain that's an intelligent answer?"

Mikasa's eyes were harsh as she glared back at him. "I'm not going to be used as a weapon," she replied, her tone as cold as ice. "You can word it however you like, make it sound like some great opportunity that will do nothing but benefit me, but that's what it is. You want me to dedicate my life to being at your beck and call, and I won't do it. Nothing you can give me will make me want to serve you as a weapon to benefit nobody but yourself."

A sigh passed the man's lips as he looked up at Kenny, whose lips were twisted in a sneer. "The most tragic thing about this situation is how she thinks she has a choice in the matter." His blue eyes immediately lost their previous facade of warmth and invite, and instead turned cold and harsh when both he and Kenny looked at her again.

"And what part of this made you think this was a mere offer, eh?" Kenny asked her. "We're not asking you if you want to do this, we're telling you that you're going to."

"You can't force me to do anything," Mikasa growled back.

Kenny snorted. "I beg to differ on that one." As he spoke, the ghoul slowly stepped from behind the desk where Rod was sitting, making his way toward Mikasa, his arms folded behind his back. "You see, Mikasa, there's an interesting opportunity with you I rarely see in other ghouls. You have a cute little forbidden romance going on with a Ghoul Investigator. So much so that he was willing to risk his own life to save yours." Kenny's face contorted into a smirk. "I don't know what kind of weird Beauty and the Beast Romeo and Juliet level drama I stumbled across with you two, but it's gross and fucking unnatural. Still, I can make this work." With that, he stepped backwards several paces, until he was against a far wall, hand placed on a latch. He paused a moment, before looking at Rod again. "Eh, Reiss, what do you guys call it when a person wants to fuck a chicken nugget?"

"Would you just get on with it?" he barked back instead.

Kenny snorted again as he focused on Mikasa again, ignoring the cutting glare she was drilling into his skull. "Don't have sex with your food, Mikasa. I know David taught you better manners than that."

Finally, Kenny pulled the latch his hand had been placed on. As the door swung open, there was only darkness for several seconds, until a brown-haired figure that Mikasa recognized all too well stumbled out of the doorway, looking heavily dazed and somewhat out of it. For several seconds, Eren looked like he was just trying to get his bearings, but his eyes very quickly met Mikasa's.

He didn't move for a long time - he looked like he was barely breathing. Slowly, gradually, his legs moved forward, towards her, as if they had a mind of their own, and the closer he got, the more Mikasa could see that his entire body was slightly shaking. With a trembling hand, he came to a stop directly in front of her and placed the limb on her face, stroking her cheek as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"You're alive," he breathed.

Mikasa felt her lips curl upward in temporary relief, and she gently wrapped her hand around his outstretched wrist. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Tears began to swell in his beautiful green eyes. "But how the hell did you..." Eren cut himself off as he threw his arms around her, and Mikasa could finally tell just how hard he was shaking. "I'm so sorry I put you in that situation in the first place, Mikasa. I should have listened to Armin. I-" Eren was cut off as Mikasa suddenly pulled back from him, as if she'd been scalded by his embrace. When she was looking at him, it was with a horrified expression the likes of which Eren had never seen before on her face. "Mikasa?" he asked urgently. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

A fire burned in her grey eyes as she turned back to Rod and Kenny, who where standing together again. She was on her feet, approaching the desk. "What the hell did you do to him?" she seethed.


	15. Choices

"Now that you know what's on the line here, sit down and we'll discuss my new terms," Rod said calmly. Mikasa could feel a fresh rage sear through her entire body - it felt as if her very core was on fire. She had never been so angry, so disgusted with a person or a ghoul as she was with this man right now. Mikasa could tell the difference between a ghoul and a human a mile away, and she knew she wasn't mistaking anything. Eren's scent was...off. He didn't quite smell like himself, like the human he was, but he didn't smell fully like a ghoul either. Still, there was definitely a lingering scent that could have only been from a ghoul. She had no clear idea what was going on, but if they had done what she was beginning to suspect they'd had done, she was going to disembowel both of them.

"You're not making any terms!" she barked at him. "I want to know what the hell you did to him, and if you don't answer me, I'm going to tear you apart!"

"Would you calm down?" he grumbled, and in that second, something snapped in her. In an instant, she could feel the slight pressure in her tailbone and shoulderblades as the red-and-black wings and white striped tails emerged at full strength, almost without her putting any thought into it. The tiny swallow of meat that Rod had arrogantly fed to her as a manipulation tactic had rendered the suppressants flowing through her body completely useless and acted like jet fuel to power her kagune. In a fraction of a second, Mikasa vaulted over the desk and hit Rod full-on in the torso with one of her broad wings, sending the older man tumbling out of his seat and onto the ground. One of the tails flattened into a blade that she pressed to the man's neck, her wings poised over her back, both of them growing crystals that she kept aimed directly at him. The coldness in her gaze was only amplified by the midnight black and crimson shade of her eyes that were burning so intensity they seemed to be glowing.

Kenny quickly rushed to Rod's aid, but the man's blue eyes snapped toward him. "Don't!" he barked, immediately turning his attention back at Mikasa. "I will of course be glad to explain what happened-"

"Enlighten me," she deadpanned.

For several seconds, silence fell upon the room, which was eventually broken by Eren.

"Mikasa, what's going on?" His voice was definitely more confused than it was concerned, and for a moment, Mikasa couldn't help but give him a very sad look. She had no idea what the hell that horrible man had done to him, but it was filling her very core with dread.

While she was somewhat distracted, Kenny quickly stepped in, bringing his blue kagune against Mikasa's tail. The sudden force caught her heavily off-guard, and Kenny managed to forced her back away from Rod. Mikasa lunged toward her uncle, all three tails colliding with his own in an explosion of sparks as the two weapons clashed into each other. "Mikasa, stop!" Eren called out to her. Mikasa glanced over at him, as her rage began to slowly subside. Finally, she lowered her tails so that they hung down past her calves behind her, slightly brushing the ground, but she was still tense, prepared to whip them forward if needed. Once Mikasa calmed down, Kenny mirrored her action. "What we did," Rod finally prompted upon standing up, "was merely protocol." He seemed largely oblivious to the look Mikasa was giving him.

"Perhaps I neglected to empathize the fact that the Military Police is a secret that only the smallest amount of CCG agents know of. I can't afford to let any random Investigator know of them. When Mr. Jaeger saw Kenny use his kagune, we had no choice."

"You still haven't answered my question," Mikasa snapped, her eyes narrowed.

"You know exactly what happened," Kenny replied with an exasperated expression. "You can smell it just as clearly as I can. Just be glad that he's alive. I was going to just kill him, but he got me real damn good." He gestured to his eye. "I figured he'd be more useful alive."

Eren finally stepped up to Mikasa's side. "I have no idea what the hell you're talking about, but whatever it is, I want no part of it."

"You're a one-eyed ghoul now," Rod told him, his tone cold. "You don't have a choice."

Shock flashed in Eren's eyes momentarily, as he immediately tried to hide it under anger. "I'm not a _ghoul_ ," he snapped back, putting as much spite into the word as he could, to which Kenny laughed at him.

"Kid, maybe your memory isn't so hot since we knocked you the fuck out, but yeah, you are. While you were down, they put a nice little kakahou somewhere in your body. By the time you woke up, your body was already fully adjusted to it. You're no more human than me and Mikasa are."

"You're full of shit!" Eren barked back. "I don't feel any different at all! I would know if something like that was going on."

"You won't notice much difference until you use your kagune," Rod replied. "Kenny is a bit wrong, you still are human, to a point. You still have some qualities of a human, but you're most certainly more kin with ghouls now than you are with people."

Eren shook his head. "You must think I'm an idiot, don't you?"

"You're acting like one," Kenny deadpanned.

Eren finally looked toward Mikasa, his eyes far more panicked than they had been moments ago. "Mikasa, they're full of shit, right? I know that they're lying to me. Humans can't be turned into ghouls."

Mikasa tried her hardest to swallow the suffocating lump in the back of her throat when he looked at her. His eyes were so scared, so panicked, begging her to not confirm what he already knew to be true. "I...I don't know." Her voice was barely above a whisper. "I never thought it was possible, but you smell...different. You don't smell human." She just dropped her gaze from his, no longer possessing the strength to continue meeting the stricken look he was giving her. "You don't smell like a ghoul, either. It's something in-between."

"It's not a bad thing," Rod spoke up, and both Eren and Mikasa glared at him. "You're just very, very powerful. And you won't be alone. There are numerous one-eyed ghouls in the Military Police."

"If you think I'm still going to do anything for you, you're out of your damn mind!" he snapped. "I still don't think I believe anything you're telling me, but if you're not full of it, all hell will freeze over before I'll lift a finger to help you."

"Where are you going to go, if not with me? You have no place in either worlds. Ghouls will see you as an abomination, humans will fear you. You are neither human, nor are you ghoul. You're an outcast to both."

Eren opened his mouth to cuss him out again, but Mikasa stepped forward.

"Is it reversible?"

Rod focused his attention back on her. "I suppose that depends on how badly we want it to be, but I have no reason to even entertain the idea."

"If you reverse it and let him go, I'll join the Military Police."

Silence quickly fell heavy in the room.

"Mikasa, don't-" Eren started to protest, but Mikasa cut him off.

"This is my choice, Eren." She looked at Rod and Kenny. "I want him to be fully human again. If you can do that, I'll do whatever you say."

There was a few more moments of silence, but Rod finally offered his hand out to hers. "You drive a hard bargain, Ms. Ackerman," he replied, "but I can agree to it. I'll-"

"Really, Reiss, that's low even for you."

A new voice suddenly cut through the small space of the room, as two figures began to approach them, drawing the attention of everyone else to a far corner. The figure that had spoke, Mikasa recognized instantly. It was that same brown-haired Ghoul Investigator that had visited her only a day ago, the one that had acted like she knew her personally. The second figure remained in the shadows, so Mikasa couldn't quite make out their figures, but the woman approached them. "Don't lie to the girl; that is just in poor taste. You know as well as I do that a half-ghoul can't be turned human again. You've only gotten more deplorable in time."

"Well, if it isn't Hanji Zoe," Rod replied instead, apparently recognizing her as well. "I haven't seen you in a very long time. Tell me, how are Levi and Erwin treating you?"

"Better than you ever did, at the very least," she replied, her tone rather good-natured for the words coming out of her mouth.

"Come now, Hanji. I always respected you and your abilities. I never treated you poorly, but you stabbed me in the back."

"If your tongue was any more slippery, I think you'd spontaneously shrivel up and inhabit the body of a snake," she answered, her eyebrow arched. Her sepia eyes made their way to Eren and Mikasa. "Don't believe a damn word this man tells you. He could talk a cat into drowning itself if he really wanted to."

"Give me some credit," he replied. "It wasn't just me that talked you into joining the CCG. You were a special-class Investigator, and joined the force of your own free will. You were one of the best we had. It wasn't until you proved yourself as an efficient agent that I gave you an opportunity to best utilize your unique talents."

Hanji rolled her eyes. "That's always the excuse you make." Her gaze then shifted to Mikasa's somewhat confused one. "The second he can't convince you to sell your soul to him, he'll resort to kissing your ass."

Finally, Mikasa gained the voice to speak up to the odd human. "Who the hell are you?" Mikasa looked her up and down, as if trying to jog something in her memory that may have been forgotten, something that made Hanji's attitude toward her make more sense. "How do you know me?"

The brown-haired woman quickly slapped her hand to her forehead. "Ah, I never introduced myself, did I?" She extended her hand toward Mikasa, largely forgetting that anyone else was in the room. "My name is Hanji. I'm your sister-in-law."

Mikasa's face very quickly shifted from confusion to irritation. "Why the hell does everyone I've interacted with in this prison expect me to believe I'm related to them somehow?" Her eyes rested on Kenny. "He's my uncle, you're my in-law, is he," she jabbed her finger at Rod, "going to be my damn grandmother?" To that, Hanji chuckled, which earned her a glade from Mikasa. "Levi hates humans," she snapped. "He'd never have married one. The entire reason he became estranged from our parents was because he attacked a bunch of Doves in their headquarters."

"Now, you know that's not the whole story, Mikasa." Hanji's voice was soft. "You were young when it happened, but surely remember the reason he attacked the Doves that night."

"We can argue about my toleration of humans later."

A new voice drew everyone's attention to the corner Hanji had first emerged from, and the second figure finally emerged from the shadows. The ghoul was shorter than her memory, but everything else about Levi had barely changed: the flat voice, the piecing, intimidating blue eyes, the dark black hair. Mikasa's eyes widened as her older brother slowly walked toward her, but he largely ignored her, stepping close to Rod and Kenny instead.

"It's a regular family reunion, ain't it?" Kenny snorted.

"Not for long," Levi deadpanned. "I'm taking Mikasa, the boy, and we're leaving."

"I'd like to see that," Kenny replied, a smirk turning his lips upward. "Really, Levi, give me your best." As he spoke, his kagune emerged. "This has been long overdue."

"You're so dramatic, Kenneth," Hanji sighed. "You always have been."

Levi ignored Hanji's comment, looking over to Mikasa instead. "Go," he ordered.

She was still staring at him like a deer caught in a headlight, but she managed to answer. "What?"

"Go with Hanji and get the hell out of here." As he spoke, he brought his own kagune out, and it was exactly how Mikasa had remembered it: pure black, wispy bat-shaped wings and four tentacles at his lower back that were largely red, but striked through with black stripes that resembled veins. Mikasa picked up her own tails, but the second she did, both Kenny and Levi were in the air, attacking each other high off the ground. Sparks rained down to the ground as their kagunes continually clashed, neither one of them managing to gain an advantage over the other.

"Come on," Hanji suddenly said to both Eren and Mikasa. "I'll get us all out of here while he's taking care of Kenny."

Eren looked at her incredulously. "You're just going to leave him?"

"Levi is a kakuja. That's something not even Kenny can say. Believe me, he'll be fine."

As Hanji quickly ushered them out of the room, Mikasa noticed that Rod seemed to have vanished, and she gave Levi one last look, as he finally landed on the ground and black full-body armor engulfed him.

* * *

"So, you used to work for the Military Police?" Hanji had led Eren and Mikasa to a secluded section of woods just on the outside of Shinganshina, where they planned on waiting for Levi. It had been a few hours at least, but Hanji had kept them company with a lot of talking. That was something she clearly enjoyed doing: talking. Eren and Mikasa were both sitting around a fire with him, listening with varying amounts of interest to her tales.

Hanji nodded at Eren's question. "I joined the CCG when I was a vengeful eighteen-year-old. I graduated top of my class at the academy both physically and academically, and within my first five years on the force, rose to the rank of a special-class Investigator."

Eren's eyes widened in admiration. "That's the highest you can get, isn't it?"

"Almost. It's the highest you can get while remaining at the smaller branches and not working in the central office."

"That's really impressive."

Hanji didn't seem to share Eren's enthusiasm. "I killed untold numbers of ghouls over my career in cold blood, as old as a great-grandmother and as young as an infant. The CCG always told me that age didn't matter, that a ghoul was a ghoul. You only need to look at Mikasa to see that's a load of bull, and it took me far too long to realize that."

"Mikasa isn't like other ghouls," Eren muttered. "She's a unique case, I can tell you that from experience."

Hanji arched an eyebrow at him. "In due time, my boy, you will see how wrong you are." She ignored the scowl Eren gave her. "My prowess is what attracted Rod Reiss to me. He made me an offer to help keep the ghouls that made up the Military Police in line. I gladly accepted the possibility to make a living off policing ghouls, and did it for years. And I was so good at it, that I was promoted to a specialized position that involved brainwashing ghouls whose loyalties to our cause was questionable. That's where I met Levi."

Mikasa looked up. "Levi was in the Military Police?"

"Not willingly," Hanji laughed. "He was imprisoned much like you just were, slated to become quinque supplies. He took Reiss's offer with the intention of escaping, and he was assigned to me specifically. I had a bit of a reputation of being able to handle the more wild ghouls because I treated them like people rather than monsters. It was a very effective way of winning their trust. I was expecting that Levi would be no exception. Eventually, in a dramatic turn of events, he won me over." She laughed again. "What can I say, that rod perpetually shoved up his ass has a charm to it that I loved. We escaped with a friend named Erwin, and the three of us moved on to create the Scouting Legion."

"So, you abandoned all of that to run off with a ghoul?" Eren finally asked.

"I abandoned all of that to run off with someone who I love very much, Eren." Hanji's voice was firm. "The morality of human versus ghoul is not that simple. The CCG is not inherently good, and ghouls aren't inherently evil. On the other hand, the CCG does a lot of good, and ghouls do a lot of evil. You've learned yourself that both sides of both conflicts are very much present at all times."

Eren looked away from her. "I guess."

"The CCG changed your life forever, without your consent. That is something that you will have to adjust to, and you will in due time. But there's no reversing it." Eren's glare toward the ground deepened, but Hanji ignored it. "For now on, you will always be more ghoul than you are human. And you alone have to make the choice as to whether you will make that into an opportunity to better yourself, or to make that a burden that you carry for the rest of your life."

Mikasa gently reached over to him, but Eren tore his hand away and stood up before skulking away.

She sighed. "He has such a strong hatred of ghouls. I can't even fathom how he's going to adjust to this."

"Then he'll need your support," Hanji told her, her voice much softer then it was a few moments ago. "In the very near future, he's going to hunger."  
Mikasa winced at the thought of that.

"When that times comes, he's either going to suffer the hell of a ghoul's hunger, or he's going to consume human meat. Whatever happens, he's going to need you by his side."

"He'll end up cracking," a flat male voice deadpanned, as Levi suddenly stepped into the clearing. "He'll eat a person regardless. The real issue is if he'll have control over who that person is or not."

"As pleasant as ever, Levi," Hanji commented. Levi was definitely a bit roughed up - his clothes were torn and blood-stained in numerous spots, and a few deeper wounds still hadn't full healed in addition to a pretty nasty-looking head injury, but he seemed to be in fairly good health apart from that. Levi's sudden appearance seemed to catch Eren's attention from wherever he had been standing by himself, as he was slowly moving back into the clearing as well.

"So, how did it go?" Hanji asked cheerfully.

"He's not dead, if that's what you're asking. Reiss eventually came back and insisted that the fighting was pointless after you and those two had vanished, and I had no desire to murder my own uncle. He tried to have me amused after that but it didn't go over so well for the ghouls stupid enough to participate in that." His blue eyes really rested on Mikasa for the first time since they had been reunited. He stepped closer to her, and Mikasa couldn't help but feel he was scrutinizing her.

"You've grown, kid. It's almost uncanny how closely you resemble our mother." Levi sat down on the ground in front of her.

Mikasa's lips curled upward in a small smile. "I don't think you've grown a bit, actually."

"Our mother was carrying your underdeveloped fetus around in her stomach when I started puberty." There was silence for a few seconds, before Levi sighed. "I know I didn't exactly leave your life on the best of terms all those years ago, Mikasa. Do you resent me for that?"

She shook her head. "I don't resent you, but I still remember the last time I saw you. You were fighting with our parents. You tried to attack Dad because he was upset that you attacked the CCG by yourself. If you hadn't escaped that day, we all would have been killed."

"How much do you actually remember, Mikasa?" his voice lacked any emotion. "Not what Mom and Dad told you. What do you yourself personally remember?"

"I remember how scared I was." Her voice fell to a whisper. "I didn't want you to fight with our parents. I remember how much I looked up to you before that, too."

"Yeah, that was your first mistake," he replied, voice dry. After a few moments of silence where both their expressions were wildly unreadable, Levi sighed. "Do you remember Petra?" Mikasa blinked at the unexpected question. Yes, she remembered Petra. Petra had been a ghoul who was constant figure in Mikasa's life growing up - Levi had been dating her for about as long as Mikasa had been alive, and the young woman was as much family to Mikasa was Levi was. Finally, Mikasa nodded. "Yes."

"She was killed," Levi replied flatly. "I had just proposed to her. On her way home, we were cornered by three Ghoul Investigators. We managed to kill all of them, but not before she was mortally wounded. That's why I attacked the CCG that day. That's why I grew to resent people. That's why I fought with our father. They wouldn't look at it from my point of view. They didn't care that humanity had just torn the person I loved more than anyone in the world away from me. They sided with the humans, and I couldn't believe it. I didn't want to believe it." His bitter blue eyes began to grow more angry. "They tried to tell me that I was wrong for wanting revenge for her, and I snapped. Was it irresponsible to blame all of their species for her death? Yes. But it took me years to realize that. I have, but it was at the cost of the rest of my family."

Mikasa just swallowed a lump in her throat, at a loss for words.

"Mom called me and begged me to save you. That's how I knew you were locked up by the Doves. Me, Hanji and our leader staged a huge operation with the Scouting Legion to get you out of that shithole."

"Why did you go though all that for me?" Mikasa finally asked.

"Because like or not, you're still my younger sister and I'm still your older brother and we're the only remnants of our family left. I would hope you don't consider me so heartless that I would have abandoned you to die in a ghoul prison. You have never wronged me, and I have never wronged you. You were just too young to make your own choice when it first happened, and I'm giving you that choice this time, Mikasa. You are free to do whatever you wish now, but if you want to find a home with the Scouting Legion, the door is always open to you. I'm not going to force you."

Her eyes rested on Eren for just fraction of a second, who was watching the exchange with a largely unreadable expression. She then looked back at Levi. It should have been a difficult decision, but it wasn't. Even if Levi was her brother, he didn't need her like Eren would. Eren had nobody, and was about to be thrust into a world that he knew nothing about, while at the same time not being able to reach out to the people in the world he was leaving. He was stuck in a limbo between the both of them, and she wasn't going to leave him to face that by himself.

"I can't. Eren would never want to join an organization that actively fights the CCG."

Levi gave her a curt nod. "If that's your choice, so be it."

"Oh!" Hanji suddenly piped up, sepia eyes finally looking at Eren again. "I think I know of someone you might be interested in meeting." Eren just looked at her, prompting the woman to continue. "You want to head to Trost. Look for a cafe called the Violet Grove. It's ran by a human - a young woman. She's a tiny thing, petite little blonde with huge blue eyes. She'll probably have a female ghoul around her. She's a lot taller, brown-haired, lots of freckles, and an attitude so huge you can't miss her from a mile away."

"To say Ymir has an attitude is the understatement of the century," Levi muttered.

"The blonde's name is Historia Reiss," Hanji continued after a snort of laughter.

"Reiss?" Mikasa immediately interjected, voice skeptical.

"Yeah, she's old Reiss's daughter," Hanji replied, "but she's been hiding from him for years. She's living under the name Krista Lenz. You can trust her, she's been an ally of ours for a long time. Just ask for Historia Reiss, and she'll know we sent you her way. Just don't piss off Ymir, if you know what's good for you."

"Why the hell do we need to speak to this girl?" Eren asked. "Trost is hours away from here. What do we have to gain for going all that way?"

"There are two ghouls who work for her who have firsthand experience in the predicament you two find yourselves in," Hanji answered. "One of them is a ghoul, and the other is a one-eyed ghoul who used to be human as well."

"It's not like you can stay here, can you?" Levi deadpanned. "You might as well have a goal in mind instead of wandering aimlessly." Levi stood up, making his way to the edge of the clearing. "Again, your choice. It might be a good idea to consider. Just be careful once you get to Trost. That place is crawling with ghouls and Investigators alike. Take care of yourselves."

Hanji moved to mirror his actions, but not before Levi turned to look at Mikasa one last time.

"Also, lose that dress. It's about as flattering as a potato sack. Honestly, the worst part of being locked up there is the shit they make you wear."

* * *

"How long do you think this is going to take?" Eren looked a bit uneasy, not that Mikasa could blame him; going back to the apartment that they shared with Armin was a huge risk. But both of them knew that they couldn't just vanish without telling Armin what was going on. Mikasa also urgently needed to lose the uniform prison gown that would be a pretty strong indicator to every single Investigator they passed that she was a ghoul who had escaped incarceration. The two of them had managed to sneak to their old apartment, and Eren quickly climbed into Mikasa's car to start it.

"I'll just be a minute, I promise. If anyone approaches the door, please just keep the car running. There's nothing you're going to be able to do against an Investigator."

"Yeah, yeah," Eren grumbled. "Just hurry up so that doesn't become an issue."

Mikasa nodded and quickly stepped into the backyard.

Eren watched her disappear behind the building and repressed a sigh. The night had been incredibly turbulent for him, to say the very least. He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel for a few moment, debating on if what he wanted to do was a good idea or not, but eventually he leaned over to the passenger side glove compartment and pulled out a pen and a piece of paper.

_Dad, it's Eren. I'm not sure what you think happened to me, but I'm alive. I have to leave Shinganshina now, and I really can't explain why. It's for your sake. But just know that I'm as ok as I can be under the circumstances. I have Mikasa with me. She's alive too. Our situation is just really complicated right now, but I didn't want you to think anything happened to me. We might return someday, but I'm not sure. Please take care of yourself._

With a sigh, Eren quickly stepped out of the car and placed the note in the mailbox where it would be found when they formally searched the apartment. He knew it wasn't exactly a great idea, but it just felt wrong to abandon his father with no explanation.

In the backyard, Mikasa brought out her kagune so that she could fly up to the second story. She was already hesitant, as she knew that was where Armin was sleeping, but she had faith that Armin would recognize her. Once her wings had lifted her up to the window, she was able to easily shatter the glass and the screen and stepped inside the carpeted room.

The next thing Mikasa was aware of was an incredibly high-pitched scream. Her eyes quickly moved over to the source of the noise just in time to see a pile of sheets, blankets and pillows fall off the side of the bed. "Ar-" Mikasa started to say, as clearly her in faith in him to recognize her had been severely misjudged, but before she could get the words out, Armin was up again, tangling his pajama-wearing form out of the mess of bed clothes. He gave her one terrified look and grabbed a glass of water off of the nightstand he stood by. In a flash, he lobbed the entire glass at her, and made a dash for the bedroom door. Mikasa had more than enough time to bring one of her wings up to her face to shield herself from getting a little wet.

"Armin, it's me!" she barked, and he finally stopped with his hand on the doorknob. There was silence for a few seconds, as Armin finally turned to look at her.

"Mikasa?" he asked, his tone taking on a strong sense of disbelief. An eyebrow arched at him. "Did you think that was going to melt me, or...?"

Armin rolled his eyes. "Mikasa, it's four in the morning, I was sleeping, and suddenly I see a ghoul, which might I add are predatory creatures with biological weapons and glowing red eyes that prey exclusively on human like me, climbing in through my bedroom window."

Her kagune vanished and her eyes returned to normal. "Is that any better?"

Armin snorted. "Yes, now I don't have to soil myself. Thanks for that, Mikasa." He smiled at her for a second, but that smile quickly vanished. "You're alive?" His brow furrowed in confusion. "I thought you were killed. That's what everyone has been saying. That you turned on Eren and then were disposed of. Of course, I didn't believe that you hurt him, but how the hell are you still alive?"

"It's a very long story, Armin," Mikasa sighed. "I can't stay here long. Me and Eren have to leave Shinganshina as soon as possible."

Armin's eyes widened in relief. "Eren's with you?"

Mikasa nodded. "He's in the car since he couldn't get up here."

A smile spread across his face. "I'm really glad to hear that, Mikasa. I was sure something terrible had happened to him as well."

"You wouldn't be wrong about that," she muttered.

"What do you mean?"

Mikasa beckoned for Armin to follow her, as she stepped out of his room and into the room directly next door that she used to share with Eren. "I'm not sure what happened exactly, but Eren might be half ghoul now."

Armin blinked at her as she reached into a backpack sitting by the door and began to rummage through it. "What?" he finally asked.

Mikasa shook her head. "I don't know. The chairman of the CCG apparently heads a secret group of ghouls and former Investigators who have been turned into one-eyed ghouls. He claimed that Eren was given that treatment for trying to free me."

Armin's blond eyebrow arched. "What the hell have you two seen in the last twenty-four hours?"

Finally, Mikasa pulled a white-and-red fox mask out of her backpack, before quickly dumping the rest of the contents onto the ground and placing the mask back. She stood up. "I don't know what we've gotten ourselves mixed up in, but my brother told us to head to Trost to speak to a human who said would be able to help us."

"You have a brother?"

Mikasa sighed. "Listen, Armin, I know this is really overwhelming, and by no means are you obligated to accompany us, but if you wanted to, you're more than welcome. Once Eren and I leave, we'll never be coming back." Her voice was small. "We'll have to change our names, go into hiding. We'll never see you again."

Armin mirrored her sigh. "Would you still even want me? I'm just a human, and one that had done terrible things to you and to other ghouls."

Mikasa stood up, and gently pulled Armin into a hug. "Eren has killed ghouls. I have killed other ghouls. If it becomes necessary for survival, we might have to kill people, too. You did what you had to do to look out for me when I needed your help more than anyone's, and I am nothing but grateful." She released him to move toward a wardrobe to grab a few sets of clothes for both herself and Eren, one of quickly she began redressing herself into. Armin looked away until she shoved the other outfits into the backpack.

"So-"

Both of them suddenly looked up when they heard knocking at the front door of the apartment.

"Stay here," Armin told her, his voice firm. Once he was out of sight, Mikasa quietly followed after him until she was in the hallway just outside of the kitchen. She stood with her back pressed against the wall leading to the kitchen with her eyes closed, listening to the conversation.

Armin's voice was surprised when he answered. "Good evening. May I help you gentlemen?"

A sigh sounded, and Mikasa recognized the voice as belonging to Jean. "Armin, I have no idea what the hell has been going on with Eren and Mikasa both supposedly dying, but we were told that Mikasa somehow survived the compactor and I know if that's true, this is the first place she would have gone."

"I haven't seen Eren since yesterday, and as for Mikasa, it's been a week," he replied coolly. "I've been too busy to oversee any experiments."

"I know you know the penalty for knowingly harboring ghouls, Armin," Jean pressed. "You work for the CCG. You're the last person who should be defending Mikasa."

"I'm not defending anyone. Believe me, if I had seen her, I would have said something. She was far too valuable of a test subject to lose. It's highly unfortunate that she has managed to escape."

Silence fell on the room for a few seconds.

"So, you haven't seen her at all?" Jean deadpanned.

"Isn't this a bit too obvious?" Armin challenged instead. "Mikasa is a highly intelligent individual. She wouldn't come straight back to her home directly after escaping, especially when two of her housemates are employed by the CCG. That would just be stupid. Mikasa is long gone."

"So, you have no idea at where she could be?"

"Not a clue."

"In that case, you wouldn't mind us taking a look around the apartment, then?" a voice Mikasa didn't recognize spoke up. "If you have nothing to hide, then there shouldn't be a problem."

"Do you have a warrant?" Armin's voice was starting to get an edge to it.

"If we have probable cause to think you're hiding a dangerous ghoul in your house, we don't need a damn warrant."

"Is your probable cause word of mouth?" Armin's tone was flat. "I know how the laws work when it comes to this kind of stuff. Ghouls may not be protected by the law, but I am, and unless you have actual evidence that I'm hiding a ghoul in my home, you have nothing." There was silence for several seconds, until Armin spoke up again. "So, if that's everything, have a good nig-"

There was a blast of noise as the door slammed against the wall. "This is that ghoul's previous place of residence," snapped the unnamed Investigator as he shoved his way into the house. "We don't need a damn thing." There was a bit of scuffling and Mikasa finally opened her eyes to see what was going on. The more aggressive Investigator had Armin rammed against a wall, fastening a pair of handcuffs around his wrists. "You can stay like that until we've fully searched the apartment."  
A flare of anger began to burn in Mikasa's chest at the scene. All the common sense she possessed was screaming at her to leave while she still could, to escape through the bedroom window, but there was no way in hell she was going to leave Armin like that.

"We'll let you go if we find reason to believe you're innocent," Jean told Armin, his expression somewhat conflicted. "I don't want to see you be killed for trying to protect your friend, but Mikasa has done terrible things and she needs to face punishment for it." Armin had to bite back the urge to roll his eyes at those words, as if Jean was suggesting what Mikasa had already been subjected to wasn't punishment enough for crimes that she didn't even commit. "And if you are hiding her," he finally added, "you deserve to be punished as well."

"Listen, Jean," Armin told him, hoping to buy Mikasa just a few more seconds to escape to the bedroom window, "I'm flattered, really, but I'm really not into this kind of stuff."

Jean glared at him. "Don't move, Arlert." He grabbed a second pair of handcuffs and secured Armin to the stove by attaching the new cuff to the chain and the other to a handle. With that, he began to move toward the living room where the other Investigator already was. Mikasa kept her eyes trained on the Investigators carefully for several seconds, and the moment both their backs were turned, she moved quickly to the kitchen. She ducked behind one of the cabinets, directly in front of Armin.

"What the hell are you doing?" he hissed at her.

"Saving your hide."

"Get out of here!" His voice was urgent, but Mikasa ignored him, waiting patiently for the Investigators to move to the back hall where the bedrooms were. "For fuck's sake, Mikasa. You've been spending way too much time with Eren."

"Hush."

The moment the Investigators finally entered one of the bedrooms, Mikasa brought her kagune out and in one powerful swipe, ripped through the chain attaching Armin to the stove. Both of them winced at the loud snap that accompanied the cuffs breaking, but in another instance, Mikasa had Armin slung over her shoulders and was racing to the door only a few feet away.

"They're getting away!" one of the Investigators called, but Mikasa didn't even hesitate. She used her wings to glide down the stairs to the ground, the sound of the Investigators chasing her very much prominent in her ears. As quickly as she could, she wrenched open the door to the back seat of the car Eren was now inside and tossed Armin inside like a sack before clamoring in herself on top of him.

"Go, go!" she urged. Eren slammed the car into motion, as Mikasa finally crawled off of her blond friend with a sigh.

"I hope you two have a long story about what the hell is going on," he snapped as Mikasa began to work on getting him out of the other set of cuffs.  
Eren smiled at him through the rearview mirror. "Mikasa had to pick up her mask."

"Her mask," Armin deadpanned. "You just risked your life and almost got us both killed because you had to pick up a damn mask." It wasn't a question, but a statement.

Mikasa laughed. "I also had to change out of that gown. I was starting to feel unclean wearing it."

"I hate you idiots, you know that? You are the stupidest pair of friends that I could have ever been cursed with." Mikasa turned her head as suddenly sirens could be heard behind them. With a grimace, Armin mirrored her motion. "I'm sorry, did I say friends? You're not friends. You're burdens and my eternal punishment for sins in a previous life." He sighed. "But, boy, am I happy you idiots are alive." Armin spoke those words with no regret, not even when the momentum from Eren performing a u-turn to shake the police sent him flying into the door of the car.


	16. The Lion's Den

After only about an hour on the road, Mikasa fell fast asleep in the back seat, and Armin quickly moved to the front to give her space for a comfortable rest - god knew she was probably exhausted. They had been able to shake off the Investigators pursing them without too much difficulty; Mikasa pretty much destroyed the cruiser's engine and tires with a wall-aimed burst of her crystals. Eren had insisted on continuing to drive, even well into the night, and Armin knew that was probably just to keep his mind off things. Mikasa had only briefly mentioned what had happened to him, and while Armin was curious, he didn't dare bring it up. The drive had been almost painfully silent, as the atmosphere radiating from Eren was suffocating to the rest of them; his green eyes were hard, focused solely on the dark back-road in front of him, jaw set.

"So," finally sighed, desperate to break the silence, "what exactly happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it," was the curt response he got.

A burst of irritation flared in Armin's chest at the brusque answer he received. "Eren, I'm missing a huge window of-"

"I fucked up, okay?" He sighed. "I never should have tried to get her out of there without a plan. This is my fault. If we had just thought this through, I wouldn't have dragged myself into all this corrupt bullshit and we wouldn't be in this situation in the first place." His voice quickly shifted from upset to bitter as he looked at Armin for the first time in well over an hour. "Is that what you wanted to hear, Armin? Did I answer all your questions? You were right, I was wrong. Once again, you're the smart one who knows everything and I'm the idiot that ruins everything."

Armin almost snapped back, but he bit his tongue, mentally reminding himself that Eren was just scared. His future was uncertain at the moment - all of theirs were, but Eren even more so, especially if what Mikasa said was true.

"You're not an idiot, Eren," Armin replied softly. "You only did what you did because you love her. Nobody can fault you for that."

Eren just grunted in response, which Armin ignored, as he wasn't sure if the grunt was in reference the attempt to comfort him or the fact that he had used the word 'love' in reference to Mikasa.

"Wh-" he started to ask, but Eren cut him off again.

"I really don't know much. Mikasa was already talking to Reiss before I was allowed in the room. After Mikasa was thrown in the compactor, Kenny knocked me out and when I woke up, I was in a dark room. The first thing I even remember besides that was being let into the room where all this was going down." His brown eyebrows furrowed. "The next thing I know, Reiss is spewing all this shit about a group of ghouls he's in charge of and telling me that they stuck a kakahou in my body while I was unconscious. He said it was 'standard procedure' when Investigators find out about any ghouls that apparently serve as Investigators."

Armin's frown deepened. "Do you feel any different?"

He shook his head. "Not at all, but we were saved by a human and a ghoul from the Scouting Legion that turned out to be Mikasa's older brother and his wife. They both seemed like they've seen this before, and they told Mikasa that my diet is going to have to change..." His voice got smaller at the end of the short story.

"I suppose there's only one way to be certain of that, right?" Armin asked.

Eren's face was stricken for a moment before he looked to the road again. "I really don't want to try that, Armin."

"You're going to be uncertain until you do," he pressed. "At least knowing for sure would be a clear answer. You're not going to feel any better until you're positive that they were right."

"I seriously doubt that knowing I'll have to become a cannibal is going to make me feel any better."

Armin's eyes quickly fell on a set of large yellow neon arches that were just a few hundred feet down the road, looming in the distant pre-morning sky. "Please just pull into that McDonalds," he pressed. For a moment, it looked like Eren was going to ignore him, but he eventually did as asked and they pulled up to the drive-thur.

"Don't order anything too complicated," a voice piped up from the back see, and Eren peered back at Mikasa from the mirror above his head. Her face was somewhat grim, with very little indication that she had just woken up. "Believe me, the more complex it is, the worst it tastes." When Eren didn't answer her, she stifled a yawn. "Get me a coffee."

Eren ended up ordering an egg McMuffin and while Armin handed everyone out what they decided to get, he almost dreaded pulling over. With a sigh, he reached over to Armin and took the sandwich his friend had been offering him. Once the scent of the familiar food hit his nostrils, Eren couldn't help but cringe. It even smelled terrible; he could feel two sets of eyes on his head at his reaction to the scent. His hands shook while he unwrapped it and lifted it up to his mouth and after a deep breath, his teeth tore into the muffin.

Almost immediately, he had to throw his head out the window of the car to dry heave. Everything about the sandwich made it practically inedible: the unnatural way it set in his mouth, the texture on his tongue that was literally uncomfortable, and most of all the taste. It tasted bitter and rotten all at the same time, in a way that was almost indescribable. After his stomach stopped churning for a moment, he set the sandwich to the side and grabbed the hashbrown that was still in the bag and ate the entire thing in two huge bites. His response was the same; nausea the likes of which he had never felt before hit his gut like a brick of lead and it joined the pile of vomit and mouthful of Egg McMuffin on the floor of the parking lot.

When Eren finally leaned back against the headrest of the car, there were tears in his eyes, and not because of the fit of puking. Now what was he going to do? He wasn't going to resort to cannibalism - no way in hell. He'd starve before he'd even begin to consider actually eating another human being.

"Eren-" Mikasa started to say, reaching to touch him on the shoulders, and he instantly turned on her.

"How the hell do you do this, huh?"

She sighed. "I don't."

"Bullshit!" he barked back at her, even more irritated by the piteous look in her eyes. "I've been around you for years and you've never had problems eating normal food!"

"I don't eat human food," she murmured, trying to keep him calm. "I just end up throwing it back up later on in the day, or else I get really sick. It tastes just as bad to me as it does to you. I've just had an entire life to practice tolerating it in public."

A bitter snort of laughter passed Eren's lips. "So more acts, right, Mikasa? Is there anything about you that hasn't been an act?"

"That's enough, Eren," Armin snapped, glaring at him. "She was just trying to help you."

"If she had just been honest with me in the first place, none of this would have happened!" Eren seethed.

Armin arched an eyebrow at him. "You can't blame Mi-"

"My entire life has been completely fucked over by her so, yeah, I will blame her," he cut him off.

Mikasa suddenly moved toward the center console, thrusting the untouched cup of coffee to the cup holder in the front seat.

"Here." Her voice was cracked. "I got this for you because I thought it might make you feel better." She managed to keep her voice together, but a sniff could be heard before the back seat door opened and she climbed out of the car.

Armin sighed, folding his arms behind his head and leaning into the seat. "Good job," he muttered, eyes closed.

Eren just glared forward at the steering wheel for several seconds, not saying a word.

"We're going to help you get through this, Eren," Armin finally said, "but you can't be constantly lashing out at Mikasa every time something goes wrong. If you really are half-ghoul, you're going to need her help more than anybody's."

"I don't want her help," he snapped.

"Ah, yes," Armin replied, sarcasm saturating his tone of voice, "keep being a martyr, Eren Jaeger. That's going to get you far in the real world." Eren fixed his blond friend in a glare, which Armin ignored. "You're not in the CCG anymore. None of us have a home anymore. You're about to be tossed into the ghoul world, whether you like it or not, because I'm telling you right now, Eren, ghouls are going to be a hell of a lot more accepting of you than any human will be." Armin placed his hand on the handle to the door. "You have the chance to ride this out with a guide and a friend, and you're pushing her away because you're a stubborn idiot. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go get Mikasa so we can get going before the CCG catches up with us and kills all three of us."

Armin's blue eyes quickly scanned the empty parking lot for Mikasa and he spied her sitting on a bench attached to a steel outdoor table. He approached Mikasa, sighing as he sat down on the bench beside her. "Come on. We have to get going. You know how he gets when he's upset."

Mikasa said nothing, just staring at the ground in front of her.

"Don't take it to heart," Armin continued. "He's just really scared."

"And he's still mad at me," she replied, her voice unexpectedly weak. "He still blames me for all this because I never told him that I was a ghoul." Tears were forming in her eyes. "I was hoping that after all this, he'd at least start to understand why I never told him."

"He's a bullhead." Armin gave her a somewhat grim smile in response. "It'll take time, Mikasa. He'll eventually forgive you, and he'll eventually see it from your point of view, but he's stubborn and right now, very cornered about what his future will hold. Deep down, his feelings for you haven't changed all that much. He's angry," Armin gently placed a hand on her shoulder, "and to be honest, it's not unjustified. Even if he wasn't forcibly turned into a ghoul, his anger would be justified. I understand why you never told him, but it doesn't change the fact that you _did_ spend a good part of seventeen years keeping a very big secret from him." He paused. "But Mikasa? He does love you."

Mikasa continued to start downwards , tears silently flowing down her cheek, and Armin very gently took her chin in his hands, tilting her head over and upwards to meet his eyes. He wiped her tears away with his thumb.

"If he didn't, he wouldn't have done what he did to get you out of there. You didn't see what I did. He was on my ass five times a day to work out a plan that would free you without putting you in any danger." He drew her into a hug. "So don't worry about what he says. His mouth is running ahead of his brain, as per usual."

Finally, a smile broke on her face. "Thanks, Armin."

Without another word, they both stood up and made their way across the parking lot to the car and once Mikasa had climbed into the back, Eren sighed. "I'm sorry," he muttered, turning in his seat to look at her. "I still had a bit of hope that this was all a lie."

Mikasa nodded. "I understand." She paused for a minute, but added, "I can start showing you how to choke down human food while in public once we get to Trost. That's a skill you'll definitely need to pick up."

Eren arched an eyebrow at her through the mirror hanging above his head. "Is there a technique to that I'm missing?"

"Yeah," she snorted, "you keep forcing yourself to eat it until you develop an iron stomach and your tastebuds have been brutally murdered by chemical warfare."

They arrived in Trost after another twelve hours of steady driving. It was Armin's idea to leave the car behind just outside of the city, parked in an old parking lot hidden behind a building that looked long since abandoned. The chance that they were still being followed was slim, but none of them wanted to risk the car being found. They were going to wander Trost by foot and after a quick search on his phone, he found the address of the cafe Hanji had pointed them toward. However, it quickly had become apparent that they had grossly underestimated just how large Trost really was, as they found themselves still looking for the elusive restaurant several hours after arriving.

One thing Mikasa had quickly noticed that Eren and Armin were more than likely oblivious to was just how large the population of ghouls was in this city; they encountered at least or two walking past every new street they turned on. Ghouls lived all over the place, but people typically outnumbered them by a large margin, just for the purpose of the kills remaining less visible. Mikasa was more than a bit curious as to how Trost wasn't in a state of panic between the two species. Eren suddenly said something that Mikasa couldn't quite make out and she peeked at her two friends standing behind her. They were all exhausted - it was evident in everyone's body language.

"How are we doing, Armin?" she finally asked him.

Armin's brow furrowed as he stared at the GPS on his phone. "According to this, it's open until eleven."

"What time is it?" Eren asked.

"Considering none of us have any idea in hell where we're going? Too late," he replied with a snort. "It might be in our best interest to head back to the car and sleep there. I don't think wandering around a strange city this time of night is a good idea. We can look more in the mor-"

Mikasa suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, cutting Armin off mid-sentence as he walked into her. He grumbled something at her in annoyance over nearly dropping his phone, but Mikasa barely heard it. The wind had shifted direction, and a familiar smell filled the air. It was undetectable to her human and half-human companions, but Mikasa recognized the unmistakable scent of a ghoul. They weren't alone in the dark backstreet. She was on high alert, carefully listening in all directions. She knew how most ghouls hunted – it was quick and devastating, and the prey would be dead before they even knew what had happened.

Suddenly, she heard it – a subtle grunt and a movement of air currents that wasn't natural. Her head shot to her left, in time to see a masked figure airborne and headed to an all-too-unsuspecting Armin, kagune extended. Mikasa reacted in a second, brutally shoving Armin to the ground in time for the ghoul to hit the pavement where he had stood seconds before.

The unfamiliar ghoul brought itself to it's full height, which was still shorter than Armin. Mikasa could see the aggravation in their hungry crimson eyes even from behind the mask they wore. The mask protecting their face seemed to resemble a lioness. It was painted a solid golden color, with dark red on the ears and around the eyes, trimmed with heavy black outlines. The ghoul's hair was tucked into a hood in the back. It completely covered the ghoul's entire face, but Mikasa was sure that the look she was receiving wasn't a pleasant one. Still, the kagune vanished and the ghoul's eyes took on a crystal-colored shade of blue. Armin was still on the ground, looking up in bewilderment at the ghoul that had come moments from cutting him in half. Mikasa moved in front of him, standing between Eren and Armin and the predator.

"Continue your hunting elsewhere," Mikasa warned the masked figure, her voice low.

When the ghoul spoke, it was with a female voice. "You are right in the center of _my_ hunting grounds," she informed Mikasa, her voice very flat, as she took a step toward the taller ghoul. "You are intruding, and I simply cannot allow intruders to run around like they own the place. I have a reputation to maintain." She held her right arm out in front of her, watching in something close to boredom as her kagune emerged. A burst of blood appeared at her right shoulderblade as a silver mass quickly began to move it's way down her entire arm, eventually engulfing her hand as well. Once the entire appendage was covered, the kagune flattened out, forming a large, bulky curved blade that was serrated on one side. It added several inches to the length of her arm, almost dragging along the ground before she lifted it up. In addition to the imposing weapon, a translucent film coated her entire body from head to toe, the only exception being the blade. The purpose of the film wasn't immediately apparent, as it took no form beyond an almost invisible layer of tissue. Once the entire kagune had formed, she finally looked back up at Mikasa. "I'm sure you realize how much of an inconvenience your trespassing is to me." The ghoul's eyes took on that shade of red again, and Mikasa could imagine she was smirking at her. "And that is really quite rude. You must have been raised in a barn."

"We're just passing through," Mikasa told her, hoping to avoid a fight, even though she knew it was probably inevitable – ghouls tended to be extremely territorial over rights to hunt in certain areas. And this one didn't look like she was preparing to back down.

"Of course you are," she deadpanned. "I get ghouls 'passing through' here almost daily. To most ghouls, merely 'passing through' means ransacking another's ghouls home." She sighed, though it sounded heavily dramatized. "Imagine if ten ghouls passed though my hunting grounds and each took a corpse for herself. That would be devastating for my safety and quality of life, wouldn't it?"

"I'm not the one hunting, am I?" Mikasa finally replied, her tone just as flat as the blue-eyed ghoul's.

"If you were, I'd have to kill you."

"Me and my friends are just trying to get to the central district of this city," Mikasa continued as if she hadn't spoken. "We have no interest whatsoever in hunting or arguing with other ghouls over your right to kill in a certain area. Need I remind you that it was you who attacked us. If anyone here is being an inconvenience, it's you."

"So, what, is he like a pet?" Her eyes focused on what Mikasa was assuming was Armin again. For a moment, Mikasa peeked at Eren and Armin out of the corner of her eyes. She could see Eren was angry, but he seemed to at least have the common sense to stay put. Armin, on the other hand, was just watching the scene with a morbid curiosity. He seemed to have gotten over the shock of almost being killed, and was watching the blue-eyed ghoul, his own eyes intense. "He's either a pet or a snack. Why else would two ghouls be traveling around dragging a human around with them?"

"He's our _friend_ ," Eren finally snapped, speaking up for the first time.

"People say that about their pets all the time," she replied. "But the sad truth is that a pet never lives as long as it's master does, and the relationship ends in grief. Where you see something worth preserving, I see an easy meal that is wandering around my hunting grounds on a night where I'm particularly hungry."

"You're not going to touch him," Eren seethed. "I'll kill you myself before I let you near him."

The ghoul looked back to Mikasa, who was glaring at her. "This is quite a situation you've put me in. You see, I can't just let the three of you walk away after the rudeness and disrespect you've shown me tonight. Leave the dog behind, and I'll let you two live."

"Over my dead body," Mikasa snapped, making sure that she was positioned between Armin and the ghoul.

"If you don't get out of my way," the ghoul told Mikasa, "I'm going to give you a very good lesson in basic etiquette around here."

That got a snort of laughter from Eren. "That coming from a fucking ghoul?" The lion-shaped mask shifted in Eren's direction. "Creatures like you are the scum of the earth!" he continued. "You kill without caring! You-"

"That's strong talk coming from a ghoul hiding behind another," she cut him off.

Eren's glare deepened. "I'm not a ghoul."

For a moment, the masked ghoul looked at him. "No," she finally said, "you're not. I thought I noticed something a bit off about you, but I can smell human on you. How interesting." Without warning, the ghoul dived at him. Mikasa immediately moved between the two figures. She felt a sharp jab in her shoulderblade and tailbone, as she released her own kagune, though much to her surprise, it felt heavier than normal. Brushing the thought off, Mikasa whipped her three tails out in front of her, just as the ghoul's huge blade came into contact with them.

Mikasa felt herself stumble back from the impact, her smaller tails not really suited for taking such a heavy blow from the blue-eyed ghoul's heavier koukaka. She managed to shove the ghoul backward with a forceful blow from the three rock-hard tails intercepting her attack. For a moment, the other ghoul hesitated, and Mikasa stopped to study her moments for a moment. The ghoul was clearly koukaku - built like a truck, capable of taking hits for days, but her kagune seemed a lot more offensive than most koukaku ghouls were. The blade covering her arm was large and imposing and capable of cleaving a human being in half, but it wasn't exactly well-suited for blocking wide attacks. An idea quickly came to Mikasa's mind and she used the small window of opportunity to widen her wings to their maximum size before hardening them and hitting her with a near-fatal barrage of the deadly projectiles.

The purpose of the film soon became apparent. Right as the crystals would have dealt a devastating amount of damage that the blue-eyed ghoul would have had no way to block, crystals of her own formed across the ghoul's body, emerging from the translucent tissue protecting her body. The projectiles bounced off the surface without so much as a scratch.

Mikasa couldn't help but hesitate in shock, struggling to process what she had just witnessed. She had never in her life heard of anything like that. Quickly, she shook it off. She didn't have time to question it - she had to act. Mikasa dove in closer to her, as her wings condensed themselves into two blades that accompanied her tails. It was evident that her crystals weren't going to do an ounce of good against the other's ghoul's armor, so she was better off putting her wings to a more offensive use. Mikasa began lashing at the ghoul savagely. She swiped at the predator with all five of the appendages at once, slowly driving the ghoul backwards. Her crystals absorbed hit after hit without so much as a scratch, but she was still being somewhat staggered by the force of Mikasa's attacks. Mikasa hesitated for moment, starting to feel herself get shortbreathed. The lion-mask took the opportunity to lunge at her with a blow of her own. Mikasa dived back, barely dodging the attack. She stood several feet from the ghoul, as they both glared at each other.

Mikasa could already feel herself tiring. That was the curse of having an ukaku kagune – it took a lot more energy to bring it out and sustain it than any other Rc type did. That was why she always favored the use of her tails, but the tails alone weren't proving very effective against this opponent. Normally Mikasa could have went on for at least several minutes, even with her wings, but she was weak. The only thing she had really eaten in well over a month was the slop that they fed her at the prison, and it was specifically designed to weaken the ghouls who ate it. The tiny scarp of meat Reiss had fed her had helped to temporarily boost her strength, but it had been burnt up almost immediately after she ate it. Still, she couldn't give up – it wasn't an option. She wasn't going to let this ghoul touch her defenseless friends. They were relying on her entirely to defend them. Fighting the exhaustion, Mikasa leapt toward the smaller ghoul.

She side stepped Mikasa's sluggish attack. Clearly, her exhaustion hadn't been missed by the blue-eyed ghoul. Turning around with speed that was impressive for a koukaku, the lion delivered the blunt end of her blade onto the side of Mikasa head. She went down in a mental explosion of stars, and almost immediately felt the kagune press against her neck.

"Is there any individuality in you ukaka ghouls at all?" The other ghoul sighed, looking down at Mikasa with boredom in her eyes. "That will never work against an opponent that can block your every attack. And then you get too tired to even stand." She turned her eyes to Armin again, for a moment. "Though," she added, still not looking at Mikasa, "I will say, your stamina is exceptionally bad. Atrociously so. I'd get that checked if I were you." The ghoul applied slight pressure to the kagune against Mikasa's throat, enough to barely draw blood. The lion turned her attention toward Armin and took slow, deliberate steps toward her prey.

"Stay away from them!" Mikasa shouted, firing off another barrage of projectiles at the ghoul. The shorter ghoul had been somewhat unprepared for the attack, but managed to bring up her crystals in just enough time to deflect the projectiles. She whipped around to face Mikasa again. Mikasa was standing, her breathing very heavy. "I told you not to touch them," she growled, her voice low. "I meant it."

"You are really starting to fucking annoy me," was the ghoul's response.

Mikasa kept her red eyes on the smaller ghoul's kagune, as she did something quite remarkable with her koukaka. The long blade expanded even more, increasing in both length and width to form a scythe that could have easily served as a shield at the same time as a weapon that could have cleaved in her in half with minimal effort.. It was almost a wonder how the ghoul could even hold it upward, but she clearly had no issue with it, as the lion-masked figure advanced on her. Mikasa took several steps back as the ghoul began swinging at her with the newly formed weapon. It wasn't especially long, but it gave her a much winder range than she had possessed originally.

Mikasa brought her one of own wing blades against the smaller ghoul's widely swinging kagune, but it ran through the weapon like it was made of butter, easily severing the wing from her body. Shock tore through her body before the pain did - she had never expected that blade to be strong enough to disarm her so easily. Mikasa quickly bit her tongue before she could cry out, though she highly doubted her pain had went by unnoticed. A slight pant manged to pass her lips, more so from exhaustion than pain, and Mikasa finally allowed her remaining wing to fade away. She hated fighting without her wings, but in the situation she was in, she was just wasting energy keeping the wing sustained. It wasn't like she could fly anymore anyway - the only use she would have for it would be firing projectiles, which would be both useless and detrimental to her dwindling energy.

Quickly, Mikasa brought her tails together to form the bulkier of her weapons, whipping it out in front of her just in time for the ghoul to dive towards her once again. Mainly due to her own exhaustion, Mikasa barely had time to block each blow before the next one came. Silently, she was very grateful that speed was clearly not this ghoul's strong point, otherwise she had a feeling that her increasingly sluggish weapon would have had a much harder time blocking the blows. Mikasa was sweating with effort, as she strained every muscle in her body in order to sustain her kagune. In one final burst of energy Mikasa gave a halfhearted lunge toward the shorter ghoul. She easily blocked attack with her own blade, and Mikasa felt her kagune fade away, as she no long possessed the strength to hold it.

The ghoul hit her right in the stomach with the flat of her blade, sending Mikasa slamming into the side of a building forcefully, the air knocked completely out of her lungs. She groaned and made a weak effort to stand, but found herself staring up into the red eyes of the masked figure as she loomed over top of her.

"Stay down this time, would you?" The ghoul's kagune returns to it's original shorter form around her arm, and she wordlessly and without hesitation delivered the razor-sharp edge down into her body. The blade ran through her gut with almost no effort and another cry of pain tore from Mikasa's mouth, only this time it was accompanied by a mouthful of blood that she wheezed up. Her hands instinctively went to the blade impaling her torso, her agonized screams piercing the silence of the night, but she was quickly lifted upwards by the blade and she was only freed from it when the ghoul flung her harshly toward a building on the other side of the alley.

"Mikasa!" In a second, Eren was at her side, rolling her over on her back. Mikasa's eyes were clenched shut, her hand at the bleeding wound in the middle of her lower torso, her breathing heavily labored between her pained cries. "Mikasa!" he repeated, more urgently this time, pulling her bleeding body into his lap. For a moment, she managed to stop shaking and looked upward at him.

"I'm fine," she whimpered.

For a moment, Eren just fixed her in a very exasperated glare, but decided against snapping at her. There was no point in getting angry at her - it wasn't like it would fix anything. Gently, he hushed her then pushed her shirt up over her stomach to get a good look at just how bad her injury was. The wound was wide and gaping, bleeding heavily out both her stomach and her back. To a human, that wound would have easily killed her, but Mikasa would almost certainly be okay - she was a ghoul and it was damn near impossible to kill ghouls without going directly for their vitals. Eren had killed enough ghouls himself to be able tell how serious a ghoul's injuries was at a glance. If it had been anywhere near truly vital organs or her throat, he would have been far more concerned, but he knew she'd heal. That didn't do much for the pain she was clearly in, but she'd at least survive it. His worry turned to anger almost as soon as it had arrived, as the ghoul that had injured her was completely ignoring them both, advancing on Armin once more.

"Hey!" Eren called to her, standing up, his eyes burning. "I have no idea who you think you are, but you'd best back the fuck off." The ghoul turned toward him wordlessly, watching him through her empty red-and-black eyes. For a moment, she looked like she was going to lunge at him, but instead she turned again, ignoring him. Even more anger flared in his chest at that action.

For just a moment, his mind shifted to the power that was supposedly within him - the power that he wanted absolutely nothing to do with. He had been told that he somehow possessed a kagune, that somehow he should be able to call upon that. However, he had no idea how to bring out a power like that, and he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to, either. Kagunes were powerful in the hands of an intelligent ghoul, but they were weapons, instruments of murder good for nothing but killing. Ghouls were already far stronger than people were, even without the assistance of biological weapons that could be more than six feet long. After a few seconds of standing around doing nothing but feeling uselessly conflicted, Eren shook his head and ran at her, hand balled into a first. He didn't need to a become a damn monster to save his friend.

"Eren, don't!" Mikasa called after him, but it was already far too late to stop him. The lion-masked ghoul stopped her approach toward Armin and looked at Eren for just a second, hesitating as if she expected him to do more than attempt to punch her. However, as he got closer and it quickly became evident that no kagune was coming her way, the ghoul arched an eyebrow at him when he ripped his hand back to hit her. In one swift motion, the ghoul kicked Eren's legs out from under him, hoisting him over her shoulder with her free hand and pile-driving him into the ground. Before Eren could even register the position he was in, the ghoul kicked him with an inhuman amount of force, sending him flying into the wall on the other side of the alley next to Mikasa.

When Eren landed next to her in a heap, there were tears forming in Mikasa's eyes. Slowly, she pulled herself up to a sitting position, still grasping her wound as she leaned against the wall. "I'm sorry," she almost whimpered. "I-" she paused to cough once more. "I just don't have the strength. I can't fight a ghoul like her. I can't stand up to a ghoul that feeds on fresh human meat regularly. I haven't eaten a real meal in a month."

Eren tried to swallow a lump in his throat as the ghoul stepped within striking distance of Armin. "I'm not any better. I can't even bring my damn kagune out."

"It's not fair to expect you to. It's something that just sort of happens." She sighed deeply. "I'll do something." Another weak breath came from her broken form as she tried to stand.

Shaking his head, Eren placed a hand firmly on her shoulder. "Not that."

"I have to do something, Eren," she gasped. "I'm not going to let her kill him."

"If you go near her in your current state, she'll kill _you_." A sigh passed Eren's lips. He had an idea for sure, but the real issue would be getting Mikasa to go along with it. "How much would you need to eat just to get her to back off Armin?"

Mikasa was silent for a moment, though Eren wasn't sure if that was due to her injuries or thinking. "Just a bite. If I can just get a boost to heal this wound and regenerate my wing, I could at the very least flee with him."

"Eat me."

Mikasa blinked at him, processing the meaning of his words for several second. "What?" she finally asked.

Eren turned around and pulled his shirt down on one side, exposing his left shoulderblade. "Just a bite, right?" he asked her. "That's what you said. Get on with it."

"Eren, I'm not going t-"

"You don't have a choice!" he snapped at her, looking toward Armin again. He had moved back away from the ghoul by several feet, but she had finally cornered him against a building. "If you don't do something right now, he's going to be killed."

Mikasa followed Eren's gaze to Armin. Tears swelled in her eyes. "Eren, I don't want to hurt you. I-"

"I'll heal!" His voice was almost pleading. "Please, Mikasa, you're the only one who can do this. I know you can beat her. Don't worry about me. You need to help Armin."

A sigh came from Mikasa's mouth, but she finally nodded. "Look away." She could feel Eren tense up under her touch when her lips came into contact with his shoulderblade. She almost pulled back, guilt threatening to overwhelm her, but she pressed her teeth into the flesh. Every bone in her body was repelled by the idea, but the hunger was fighting her reservations. Her eyes fell closed as she let her instincts take control of her actions. The satisfyingly familiar taste of blood filled her mouth long before her teeth finally closed around a small chunk of his flesh. She tore it from his shoulder quickly, trying to minimize his discomfort. Eren groaned when she finally leaned back, savoring the rather unique taste he was giving off - it definitely wasn't preferable to human meat, but it wasn't bitter and distasteful like ghoul meat was either.

Within seconds of swallowing the piece of meat Eren had supplied, Mikasa was able to stand up, her wounds already starting to heal and her strength returning on command. "Thank you," she murmured.

Eren gave her a weak smile, clenching newly formed injury with his hand. "Give her hell."

The ghoul had hold of Armin by the collar of his shirt, rammed up against the wall of a building, her kagune poised in a way that was mere seconds from ramming him through with it. Even from several feet away, Mikasa could see him shaking slightly, blue eyes slammed close. Her grey eyes turned black and red, burning with a newfound anger while her kagune reformed at full strength - the severed wing had reappeared as if it had never been damaged in the first place. With a speed that was impressive even for her, Mikasa dived toward the shorter ghoul, tails fusing together mid-strike into a blow leveled straight at the ghoul's waist.

In a second, she dropped Armin, hastily moving her weapon to attempt blocking the attack. Mikasa, however, did not back off that time, and her own kagune came into contact with the koukaku, creating a deafening clash upon impact that reverberated throughout the alleyway. The force of the attack alone was enough to stagger the lion-faced ghoul back several feet, but when Mikasa saw the damage her blow had done, she couldn't help but feel relieved. The ghoul's kagune was cracked, shattered with a pattern running along the surface of the blade like a sheet of glass. Unperturbed, the ghoul approached her again, albeit with a bit more hesitation than she had possessed moments ago.

Even as the lion-masked ghoul cleared the distance between the two assailants, Mikasa poised her wings over her shoulders, letting loose a barrage of the deadly crystals. The ghoul quickly turned, crystallizing the side of her body facing Mikasa to deflect the projectiles. Clearly, she was leery of her blade taking any more damage than what had already been dealt by her tail. The second Mikasa stopped firing at her, the ghoul swung at her forcefully, with far more aggression in her heavy-handed blows than before.

Mikasa quickly ducked, narrowly missing a blow from the blade that had been aimed at her neck. The speed of her sudden maneuver knocked Mikasa off her feet for just a moment, but from her position under the shorter ghoul's head, Mikasa delivered a well-placed kick to her jaw that staggered the ghoul once more. She was able to recover from the blow quickly, but still far too slow to come close to hitting Mikasa. The heavy swing that she threw towards her trapped the koukaku in the momentum of her attack for several seconds, giving Mikasa ample opportunity to position herself a few feet away from the imposing weapon. Using her wings for a burst of speed, Mikasa went after the kagune once more, delivering another damaging swipe to the already-weakened weapon's form.

That time, the ghoul let out a gasp of pain, staggering back from the blow. Her sword looked like it was literally about to fall apart, and she clearly noticed this as well, as the weapon faded away seconds later. The crystallizing film quickly took the place of the blade, and both of her fists became coated in the rock-hard material, both of which she lifted toward Mikasa, clearly preparing to go after her with punches and kicks rather than actual weapons. Mikasa hung back for several seconds, trying to gauge the best course of action to take - she wasn't going to make the mistake of underestimating this ghoul again.

The ghoul dived at her first, moving with impressive speed now that her bulky weapon was gone. Mikasa completely failed to avoid the sudden rapid punch, and the rock-hard fist came bluntly in contact with her gut, knocking all the wind out of her lungs and sending her into a wall once again.

Before she even hit the ground, Mikasa forced herself to catch her breath and her wings had already propelled her out of the range of another one of the punches. She expertly angled her wings and without losing even the tiniest bit of momentum, Mikasa redirected her dodge into an attack level directly at the ghoul's leg. The ghoul quickly coated the appendage with her rock-hard armor, but that time, Mikasa's tail cut through the crystal, and dug into the flesh of her leg.

For a moment, time seemed to stop for the ghoul, as she just stared at the bleeding wound in shock, as if she couldn't believe what had just happened. As the ghoul finally seemed to come to her senses, Mikasa was already behind her, delivering another attack to her back. The ghoul only barely managed to block that one, and by the time she had managed to turn on her injured leg to attempt a counter, Mikasa was at her front once more, and left the ghoul no time to react before she split her tail and delivered all three of them through the ghoul's chest.

A scream very similar to the one Mikasa had let out earlier passed the ghouls lips, and Mikasa wrenched the kagune out of her torso. Within seconds of the scream piecing the night, another sound could be heard in the distance: sirens.

"Those are front Ghoul Investigators," Eren suddenly said, his voice tense. Armin was standing beside him, as Eren had apparently tended to him while Mikasa had been fighting. "We need to get out of here right now."

Finally, Mikasa allowed her kagune to fade away for the last time. She looked at the injured ghoul bleeding on the ground for a moment longer, her expression cold. "Let's go."

As Eren and Mikasa began to walk away, Armin's eyes fell on the ghoul, his lips pursed. Her breathing was heavily labored, more than likely due to a lung being pierced by the numerous stabs to her chest. Her ice-colored eyes were clenched shut, hand holding onto her wounds as she tried to bring herself to stand. The ghoul placed her free hand against a wall in the narrow alleyway, trying to brace herself as she tried to position her legs under her body. As soon as her weight shifted to her legs, she collapsed again. The moment of weakness was accompanied by a curse, but it wasn't angry - it was nervous. Fearful. If Eren was right and those sirens in the distance were in fact from Ghoul Investigators, she wouldn't stand a chance in hell of coming out of that scenario alive, and her voice and desperate attempts to stand seemed to reflect that she was very much aware of such a possibility.

Rather than follow his friends, Armin slowly approached the ghoul. In a second, she whipped her head around to face him, piercing blue eyes cutting into him like daggers even from behind the mask.

"Don't come near me," she hissed at him through clenched teeth, though it was probably more so due to pain rather than anger.

Armin just crouched down beside her. "You're pretty badly hurt."

She ignored him, looking away as she tried to stand once more.

"Armin, what the hell are you doing?" Eren called at him from the front of the alleyway where he and Mikasa stood.

"She's hurt," Armin responded, standing up once more after he got no further response from the injured ghoul.

Eren looked dumbfounded. "Um, yeah? That's sorta the point, Armin. She tried to kill both you and Mikasa."

"We need to get out of here, Armin," Mikasa pressed. "It won't end well for any of us of we're found here."

Armin's jaw set, his eyes harsh as he looked at both his friends. "So, what, you just want to leave her here to die?"

Eren returned his angry look "For god's sake, Armin, we don't have time to argue about this! Leave her there. She was all talk five minutes ago, I'm sure she'll be able to defend herself just fine." As he spoke, the ghoul glared at the brunet, her eyes somehow even angrier than they had been when Armin approached her. "Just look at her." Finally, his green eyes rested on the irritated, injured ghoul before flashing back to his blond friend. "She's a typical ghoul. She's just a monster."

Armin's expression didn't waver. "Would you say the same if that was Mikasa in that position?"

"That's different. Mikasa is different."

"She was trying to feed herself." Armin crossed his arms. "Mikasa has eaten humans, too. They're no different." Armin looked at Mikasa briefly for a second, seeing that her eyebrow was arched at him. She said nothing, but her face spoke wonders: _'I'm nothing like her, and you know it.'_ And Armin knew she was right - there were distinct differences between Mikasa's lifestyle and this ghoul's attitude. But they knew nothing about her, who she was, where she came from, why she chose to live the way she did, and there was no part of him that felt she deserved to die for acting like a 'typical' ghoul.

Mikasa must have seen the resolve in his face, because she stepped forward with a sigh. "Fine, we can help her, but we need to get moving."

"You've _got_ to be kidding me," he heard Eren grumble, but Armin ignored him, turning back toward the ghoul.

She said nothing as Armin bent down by her side once more, but the glare she was still giving him wasn't exactly inviting. Slowly, he reached toward her shoulders, but the second his fingers came into contact with her jacket, the ghoul reached out and grabbed his wrist in a tight hold.

"You keep your hands off of me, _human._ "

Armin tried not to wince at the painful hold she had on his hand. Rather, he gave her a look that was supposed to be stern, but he imagined that it didn't have much of an impact on her. "Listen," he hissed to her, his voice low, "both of them want me to leave you here. I don't want to do that, because if those Investigators find you, you're going to die, and I know you know it."

The ghoul released his arm and looked away, her body practically radiating indignation.

"If you want to live, I suggest you let me help you. We can help you get home, or whatever you want to do, but you're not going anywhere on your own until you can at least stand." With those words, Armin offered his hand out to the injured ghoul. She pointedly glared away from him for a few long seconds, before finally she mumbled something under her breath and took his hand with the same annoyed force that she'd grabbed his wrist with.

A small smile twisted his lips upward as he gently positioned himself so that she could lean on his shoulder to walk, and after pulling her to her feet, Mikasa looked over to them.

"She'll need to lose the mask, too."

An sound that strongly resembled a growl passed her lips before the ghoul grasped the mask, pulling it off her head to reveal a head of long blonde hair that fell to her shoulderblades. She shoved the mask into Armin's chest with such force that he let out a grunt of pain and almost stumbled backwards, and otherwise didn't acknowledge he existed as they slowly started to walk forward.

As they finally exited the alleyway, Armin looked at her again. Her eyes were clearer freed of the mask - a cold icy blue color that really seemed to suit the royally pissed glower that was obstructing her otherwise pretty features. Her most distinct feature, however, was her nose, which seemed a bit larger than average.

"Stop staring at me," she grumbled, still looking forward.

Armin felt the heat rise to his cheeks over the fact she had noticed his gawking, and he quickly looked to the ground in front of them. "What's your name?" he finally murmured.

There was a long moment of silence. "Annie," she finally growled.

Annie gave them a few clipped instructions as to how to get to her house, which fortunately was only a couple blocks away. They finally stooped in front of a small, unassuming building tucked into a street crammed with homes that all looked identical. As she stepped onto the front step of her porch, Annie let loose a gasp of pain and nearly fell over, but Armin was quick to catch her. His hands slipped to her lower back while his other forearm supported her torso, and once she was upright again, Annie glared at him.

"Higher than that, Handsy."

Armin blushed bright red as he hastily moved his hand to her upper back. "I didn't-"

"Let's go," she cut him off.

Clearly flustered, Armin avoided making eye contact with her, which Annie was more than happy to oblige to. "I swear, I was just trying to help."

"Then shut up and help."

After exchanging a long glance, Eren and Mikasa silently followed the two into her house.


	17. Recognition

Jean had no idea how long he'd been flying over the various cities and towns, but the events leading up to the strange position he was now in were still very fresh in his mind. The last thing Jean had expected coming to work the next morning was to immediately be called to an audience with Shinganshina's Division Commander. He had known that he had royally fucked up by letting Ackerman escape again the night before, but he certainly didn't expect that to be bad enough to warrant Kenny himself wanting to personally chew him out over it. If anything, it was really Armin's fault more than anyone's, but he was about as well off as she was at this point, considering that he had not only tried to hide Mikasa, but then fled with her. In a way, Jean had expected Armin to be a little more levelheaded about the situation than Eren had been, but his faith had apparently been misplaced and he was also manipulated by the damn ghoul.

The room Jean was summoned to was unassuming enough; just a small normally unoccupied office that Kenny worked from on the very rare occasion he paid Shinganshina a visit. However, when Jean walked past the door, there was one other figure he definitely did not recognize: a woman that looked a few years older than him, with short ash blonde hair, silver eyes and wire-framed glasses. She was dressed in a suit, identical to what most Ghoul Investigators wore. Her current expression took the form of a somewhat blank scowl as she leaned against one of the walls, arms folded across her chest.

"Kirstein?" Kenny grunted from the desk the second that Jean closed the door behind him. When Jean fully looked at him, he noticed that the commander was sitting on his desk rather that on a chair.

He nodded. "Yes, sir."

"I'll get right to this, then." he replied. "I'm sure you have questions, and I'm a busy man." He stood up and approached the younger Investigator. "I have a somewhat special job for you."

Jean's face betrayed his confusion. A job had certainly not been what he had been expecting when he had learned that he was to have a private meeting with Kenny, especially not after last night.

"You look like a deer caught in a headlight," Kenny snorted. "If you don't think you're worth my time, I can always find someone a bit more confident in their abilities."

Jean quickly shook his head. "It's not that. I just wasn't expecting th-"

"Find a way to compose yourself. I don't have time to fuck around with someone who's pissing his pants before I even tell him what the hell I want." Jean remained silent, biting his tongue on the offended reply he almost gave the superior officer. Kenny looked toward the woman in the back of the room. "This is Rico. Rico Brzenska. She's a special-class Investigator from HQ and I've brought her here personally to deal with what has become a very urgent matter. You're going to assist her."

Jean just nodded, not daring to ask any of the questions buzzing around in his head. "Of course."

"Everything about this task is need-to-know, Kirstein, and normally we would never put someone as inexperienced as you are on a case like this, but there are...circumstances that make this a bit different." Kenny leaned onto his desk again. "We have two targets, both of who I know for a fact that you are familiar with. You're also aware that Mikasa Ackerman was among the ghouls who escaped from Karanes yesterday?"

Jean nodded, fairly certain he now knew exactly where the conversation was going. "You're sending us after her?" In a way, it didn't surprise him - normally, if a ghoul left a city's jurisdiction they didn't get involved, but Mikasa had proven herself to be an incredibly dangerous ghoul.

"Not just her. You're also being expected to deal with your former partner, Eren Jaeger. He's on the run with her."

Jean's brow furrowed. "Eren's alive? I thought Mikasa killed him."

"Don't ask too many questions," Rico muttered from the back of the room. "For your own sake, you want to go through this knowing as little as possible. I know all that we need to know about the assignment. You are only coming along to assist with dealing with Jaeger, since you know how he fights better than anyone else. Everything else is the business of people ranked far higher than you are."

Kenny stood up again, a smirk on his face. "That's about it. Rico can clearly take care of the rest of this."

And that's how he had ended up in a helicopter for hours with a new partner he only barely knew, on a mission he knew almost nothing about, flying to a city that he'd never visited before, to track down a former friend of his that the CCG had told everyone had died. Rico hardly spoke, and trying to get even the tiniest pieces of information from the stoic, cold woman was like beating a brick wall with a sponge. He had actually expressed that frustration at one point, and her response was to glance at him for but a second and say "If I told you that, I'd have to kill you" in one of the most sarcastic tones he'd ever heard. The only definitive answer Jean could get from her was that they were headed to the city of Trost, as they apparently had a method of tracking the two of them, but she wouldn't say what that was, exactly.

God, if he had known what he was getting himself into, he would have just stayed home today.

Jean bit back a sigh for what felt like the hundredth time. Eren would almost certainly be with Mikasa. Jean had no idea how the hell he was alive, but even with his lack of knowledge, it didn't take much more than basic common sense for him to come to the conclusion that Eren had played a part in Mikasa's escape. His behavior over the last few weeks had been indication enough, so perhaps it wasn't quite so surprising that the higher-ups had tried to cover it up. It really wouldn't look very good on them if word of a Ghoul Investigator turning on his own force to save a dangerous ghoul became general knowledge.

Just dealing with Mikasa on her own would be enough of a challenge, but having Eren there as well would just make things ten times more complicated. Jean knew that if it came down to it, killing Mikasa wasn't out of his comfort zone - she had hurt enough of his friends and comrades for him to understand that it had to be done, as unpleasant as it might be. But Eren? He wasn't so sure. By openly siding with a ghoul, Eren had sealed his own fate. There was no place in their law to protect humans who knowingly harbored ghouls, and Eren had done much, much worse than merely harboring one. He'd be sentenced to death right along with her and Armin when they were found.

The impending fight with Eren wasn't even the most pressing of the thoughts weighing on his mind, however, because he knew for a fact that he'd have to get through Mikasa well before he came anywhere near Eren. Jean would be lying to himself if he said he wasn't apprehensive about engaging her - she had proven how deadly she was far too many times. However, he apparently had a secret weapon, if what Grisha had given him proved as effective as the older man had claimed it would be. Jean's light brown eyes slowly rested on the two briefcases sitting on the floor at his feet. One, he recognized. The other quinque he'd never touched, and the form it would take was a complete mystery to him.

"I would have very willingly went after her myself." Grisha's face had contorted into a somewhat bitter glare at those words. He had stopped Jean only a few minutes before he and Rico were to set out on their case, after catching word of the assignment. "Unfortunately, I'm needed here, until our agents have recovered a bit from her massacre." He then shook his head. "I have no idea what Eren was thinking, just taking off with her, but I have a solution that will make combating Mikasa a lot easier." He held a quinque out toward Jean. "If you find yourself struggling against her with your own weapon, I can promise you that this one will render her helpless within seconds."

"Hey, Kirstien," Rico's words snapped Jean to the present, and he quickly looked up from the unfamiliar weapon. Her eyes then turned toward a handhold GPS that she'd been watching on and off for the hours they'd be in the helicopter. "It looks like they haven't moved for about an hour. It seems they might have found a place to settle down for the night." She looked up from the GPS again, to meet Jean's face. Her expression was as unreadable as ever, though not quite as cold as it had been when he was actively probing her for information. "We'll be landing soon, so I suppose that'll be a good place to start looking."

In the end, Jean decided to take the quinque Grisha gave him.

Shortly after landing, the two of them were greeted by another Ghoul Investigator by the name of Dot Pixis - a considerably older man that was completely bald and sported a bush mustache. He was the highest-ranking Ghoul Investigator in Trost that was currently on duty, so the two of them had to meet up with him before they began any digging around in the unfamiliar city.

"So Kenny sent you, eh?" he asked, leading them both down a hallway, his hands folded behind his back.

"Yes," Rico answered, "and it's confi—"

Pixis cut her off with a wave of his hand. "Oh, yes, I'm sure. Good old Kenny never tells anyone anything. I'm sure your mission is incredibly important, and I have no place to be asking. I'm just an old veteran that has been doing this since you were both in diapers. But what do I know?"

Despite his words, the old man cracked a smile at the two of them before allowing them into an office. "In any regard," he continued, "I'd be happy to provide the two of you with any assistance you may require." He sat down in a chair by a computer, and Jean and Rico mirrored his actions, sitting opposite him. As soon as he was seated, Pixis reached down to his waist to reveal a flask that was filled with something that he probably shouldn't have been drinking while on active duty. His eyes rested on the two younger Investigators, prompting them to speak.

"We're looking for three targets," Rico started. "A female ghoul and two humans who were formerly employed by the CCG in Shinganshina." She reached into a bag she had brought with her to reveal a folder. "The ghoul goes by the name Mikasa Ackerman, alias is the Fox Ghoul." She passed him the folder, which Jean then realized was Mikasa's case file."

"Ahh, yes," Pixis hummed as he looked over the documents in the folder. "I heard about the Fox Ghoul. Information about that one spread to numerous cities around Shinganshina. She's still giving you quite a run for your money, eh?"

"She's responsible for the deaths of nine Investigators in Shinganshina," Jean added. "We did have her detained for a time, but..." His voice trailed off as irritation toward Eren bubbled up in his chest once more.

"She escaped Karanes?" For the first time, the older man looked curious about what they were telling him.

"Unfortunately," Rico replied. "It was with assistance from an entry-level Investigator named Eren Jaeger and the head of the city's research wing, Armin Arlert. They are both most likely still traveling with her."

"It's important we find all three of them," Jean almost sighed. "Eren has a thing for her - they were one step off of being engaged before her identity was discovered. And Armin? To put it simply, the man's a damn genius. Armin's just as dangerous as Mikasa is, and Eren is super defensive toward her."

Pixis chuckled. "It sounds like you two have your work cut out for you." He took another drink. "And you think they're here in Trost?"

Rico nodded. "We've actually tracked them here." She passed him her GPS.

When the older man looked at the address on the device, he smiled every so slightly. "Huh," he grunted, "that's fairly interesting."

"What is?" Jean asked.

"It seems your target is camping out at the home of someone we've long suspected of being a ghoul. Her name is Annie Leonhardt. We've been watching her for several months, and she has exhibited enough behaviors in line with that of a predatory ghoul that she's a person of interest, but we haven't had anything concrete enough to make a move against again her." He pulled up a file on the computer in front of him, showing a picture of a blonde woman in her early twenties with piecing blue eyes. "We requested medical records and blood tests, and they came back clean. We've searched her home, but found nothing substantial enough to be sure. I'm sure you two have experienced cases like that." The man chuckled again. "You know they're a ghoul, but we're not allowed to go around killing anyone without being sure, and they know how to fake documents and keep their home clean as a whistle. She's a crafty one, but I suppose that ends tonight. If you get an opportunity, bring her in. If we find she's not a ghoul by some miracle, we'll kill her for harboring your targets. I'm not getting myself involved with that bunch. I may be old, but I don't have a death wish just yet."

* * *

"You're out of your damn mind if you think I'm going out of my way to find food for that ghoul," Mikasa bristled in indignation, meeting the irritated glare Armin was giving her. "And you can give me that look all you want, Armin, but I've just about reached my limit with her." Mikasa's gaze flashed to the other room, where Annie was literally sulking on the couch, still bleeding through the towels Armin had wrapped around her torso. Her arms were folded cross her chest and she was glaring pointedly at a television playing some animated program.

"You know she's never going to heal properly if she doesn't eat something." Armin returned her harsh stare, refusing to step down.

"That's really not my problem," Mikasa snapped back. "It's not your problem either, for that matter. I didn't help escort her here to play nurse, I did it because we would have all been killed if someone didn't get you moving."

"For someone who claims to not be a killer, you seemed pretty eager to leave one of your bleeding in an alley to die." Armin's voice was flat.

"She impaled me, Armin. She literally ran a kagune the length of her arm through my gut." Her eyebrow arched. "And if I hadn't torn a piece of Eren's flesh off his shoulder to heal my own injury, she would have killed you and left me there to die." Her voice grew an edge to it. "I do prefer not to kill, but there's a limit to the mercy I can show ghouls like her."

"Oi," Eren suddenly spoke up, glaring toward Annie from where he was sitting at the kitchen table, "don't you have anything you can eat around here?"

"It's standing right in front of you," came the clipped response, and Eren just glared at her before standing up.

"Come on, Armin. We don't have time to deal with this. Her injuries will regenerate. She's a ghoul. They grow limbs back like salamanders."

"We don't even have a place to sleep tonight, Eren." Armin replied. "I don't see what your hurry is."

"I'm sure as hell not sleeping here, if that's what you're implying," Eren grumbled, shooting another glare toward Annie. "She'll gut all of us in our damn sleep."

"It won't be in your sleep," she deadpanned, eyes not leaving the TV.

"Come on, Mikasa," Armin pressed, snapping Mikasa's gaze from glaring at Annie to a truly exasperated look when her eyes fell on her blond friend again. "I know you're not that cruel."

"Oh, don't you start with that," she snapped back. "You're not going to guilt trip me into spending hours crawling through back alleys in this godforsaken city to find food for a ghoul that almost killed me an hour again."

Armin's gaze softened into a look that just made Mikasa more irritated, because she recognized that look. His eyes grew a pleading to them that was comparable to a puppy begging for food, and Armin knew that Mikasa could only rarely say no to that stupid look.

"Don't you dare give me that look," she growled, already know she was losing.

“Show a little humanity, I know you have some in you still.”

"How the hell do you expect me to drag an entire corpse back here, Armin?" she practically sighed. "And that's considering that I even find anything, because I'm not killing someone for her. That is where I draw the line. I'll have to get lucky enough to find a kill left behind by another ghoul in the first place."

"Can you at least look?" His sad frown remained in place. "That's all I'm asking, Mikasa. Just try."

A sound somewhere between a growl and a defeated sigh passed her mouth before she reached out and grabbed her coat off the back in one of the chairs.

Armin smiled at her. "Thanks, Mom. I can always count on you to help me out when I need it."

"You're grounded for a month."

Before leaving, Mikasa reached into a bag resting against a chair that she had brought with her before they left the car. All it contained was the red-and-white fox mask Mikasa always wore when she wandered around with her kagune out. Years of watching over Eren and Jean in such a state had given Mikasa a talent for remaining almost invisible in the dead of night. Before she stepped out the door, her eyes met Eren's, whose gaze quickly flashed upwards after staring at the mask in her hand for a couple brief seconds. His expression was largely unreadable, but Mikasa tried to ignore the feeling that he was scrutinizing her. "If she tries anything," Mikasa gestured toward the ghoul sitting in the other room, "knock Armin out and drag him back to the car by his ear."

"You don't have to tell me twice," Eren grumbled.

The second she stepped outside, Mikasa was assaulted by the bitter cold of the March evening air. Granted, it wasn't as bad as it would have been a month ago, but it was still enough to make her instantly want to step backwards into the the house she'd just left. Mikasa really hated the cold. She hated the cold even more when she was being guilt tripped by her pseudo-son friend into enduring said cold fetching food for a ghoul that was probably going to turn on them within seconds of regaining her energy. Biting back a sigh, Mikasa placed the mask on her face, lifted her black hood up and took to the air with the appearance of her wings.

She knew that it really wouldn't be that difficult to find something to eat in this city; the overwhelming number of ghouls that she'd noticed earlier almost guaranteed that there would be hunters out and about, and well-fed ghouls usually just left what they didn't eat behind rather than risk being caught toting the leftovers around. That had even been the case in Shinganshina, and Trost was significantly larger than their hometown had been, so Mikasa knew that if she was careful and persistent, the odds of finding something were in her favor.

As she carefully leapt between a pair of rooftops, using her wings to keep her airborne on the small gap, the scent of blood suddenly became very prominent, wafting from an alleyway about a block down the road. Silently dropping to the ground and allowing her wings to fade away, Mikasa hesitated before turning the corner to see a brunette woman with her haired pulled back into a ponytail hunched over a body laying on the ground. Blood was pooling over the cement of the alley, slowly expanding the more the ghoul did whatever she was doing to it. Mikasa took a couple tentative steps closer to the ghoul, tensing herself to flee if she became hostile, but the ghoul seemed too occupied with the corpse to notice her. As she continued to watch, Mikasa noticed that the figure was doing something truly odd to the body: she was dismantling it, stuffing limbs and chunks of skin, bones and meat into a duffel bag. Suddenly, the brunette tensed up, giving the air a rather pointed sniff. Mikasa likewise froze as the ghoul turned to glare at her.

The ghoul stood up, her bored brown eyes staring Mikasa directly in the face. Her expression looked more put off than it did actually angry, but that did little to calm Mikasa down - she had no intention whatsoever of getting into a fight with another territorial ghoul and every muscle in her body was ready to turn on a dime if it became necessary.

"So what do you want, huh?" Her voice was gruff. When Mikasa didn't immediately reply, she arched an eyebrow before taking a few steps toward the newcomer and Mikasa noticed that her face was covered in freckles. "I'm clearly not a human, so I don't know why the hell you're bothering with that mask. It's not serving you much of a purpose right now." She stared at Mikasa for a few seconds longer, as if expecting her to take it off, and when Mikasa didn't react to her words, with a roll of her eyes, the ghoul went back to tearing the body apart.

"You must be new around here, eh?" she mused, her back still turned. "I don't recognize you. There's a lot of ghouls already hanging around Trost, so I question what brings you here. You'd be better off finding a rural village to terrorize."

As it became more apparent to Mikasa that the ghoul wasn't actually hostile over her presence in the dark alley, she could feel her own tension lessen slightly and she slowly lifted the mask up onto her forehead. "You sure are friendly in this city, aren't you?" A ghost of a smile turn Mikasa's lips upward. "I was already attacked within hours of arriving, and now you're telling me to get out."

The ghoul turned to look at her. "Oh, no, you can stay if your heart so desires it. If you're going to creep up my ass while I'm hunting, however, I think you may have a bit of a death wish."

"I think I can take care of myself, though the concern is appreciated."

The ghoul snorted. "I'm just giving you some friendly advice, pal. You can take it or leave it, but it's no wonder you were attacked if you behaved to that ghoul like you are right now. There's etiquette around here, and you seem stupidly oblivious to it."

"I'd feel simply privileged if you'd take the time to educate a barbarian like me." Mikasa's tone dripped with sarcasm.

"Oh, of course." The brunette's deadpan sarcasm matched Mikasa's almost flawlessly. "First, you trespass on hunting grounds in the dead of night. Second, you mouth off to the ghouls you encounter. Third, and most importantly, you smell. Go bathe yourself."

"Classy," Mikasa deadpanned back.

The ghoul turned to look at Mikasa out of the corner of her eye again. "So, Smellby, I help you with something?" Her voice was more irritated than anything . "I'm trying to do something, and you're doing nothing but pissing me off and invading my personal space."

Finally, Mikasa sighed. There was no point in trying to make small talk with her any longer. "I don't suppose you'd mind sharing some of that with me, would you?" she finally asked, which got a snort of laughter from the ghoul.

"So, what, are you too lazy to hunt, or are you another one of those charity cases? I keep telling her that if she insists on handing out table scraps to every damn ghoul that comes poking around, we're going to become as lazy as humans are." She shook her head, brown lockings waving back forth with the scornful gesture. "What is it with this city and attracting ghouls that can barely even use their kagunes?"

"It's not that," Mikasa replied, feeling herself becoming slightly irritated over the scornful look the ghoul was giving her. "I prefer to scavenge."

"Why the actual hell would you choose to live like that?"

Mikasa ignored the look the ghoul was giving her. "I have my reasons."

"Ah, you're one of those kinds, eh?" That time, she actually chuckled. "The ones who think they have a moral high ground because they can't be assed to kill themselves, right? The Edward Cullen of ghouls, essentially."

"I would appreciate not being compared to that." Mikasa tried to keep her tone flat, though being compared to Edward Cullen was making that incredibly difficult.

The ghoul threw her bloody hands up. "Hey, I'm not judging anybody, Alice. You do you." The ghoul bent over to stuff the last few pieces of flesh into the bag, before she tossed it in Mikasa's direction. "If it makes Little Ms. Cullen feel better, that guy was stalking a group of girls half his age. Eating him will be a service to the safety of stupid underages drinkers all over the city."

Mikasa looked a bit bewildered as only barely caught the duffel bag. "Aren't you hungry?"

"Me? No." The ghoul snorted again. "I was just running a few errands for my girlfriend. She'll be happy to know I gave that to a yet another one of the ever-pitiful charity cases that need her help so badly." As the ghoul walked past Mikasa, she ruffled her black hair with her blood-soaked hand, which earned her a pointed glare. "I'm sure I'll see you around, Alice. We know all the ghouls in this city."

Mikasa stood still, watching after the ghoul for a few seconds, before she lifted the heavy bag up by a strap and flew out of the alley, jumping between a few more buildings before she descended into another ally a short distance from the crime scene. She was also hungry - she hadn't eaten anything of real substance in well over a month, and she sure as hell wasn't going to do that in front of Eren. He might have been part ghoul, but Mikasa knew that his various mental and emotional wounds were still festering far too much for her to make a risk like that. She'd have to be careful with his perception of her for a while; even pulling that mask out had seemed to put him somewhat on edge. She needed him to see her mask and her kagune as a part of her, and not a part of the Fox Ghoul that he had hunted for months. Mikasa reached into the bag that ghoul had provided and pulled out something to eat, silently trying to convince herself that it would come in due time.

* * *

"Would you please just sit down?" Armin asked the blonde ghoul for what felt like the hundredth time since Mikasa had left, to which he got the same cold shoulder he got every single time. He wasn't exactly sure what was wrong with Annie, but despite the huge, very much unhealed wound in her chest, she insisted on being up and walking around, just pacing around whichever room he and Eren weren't in.

Eren rolled his eyes at the heavy sound of her strained breathing. "Give it a rest, Armin. She's not going to listen to you."

"I'm just worried about her," he replied, eyes not leaving Annie's direction.

Eren arched his eyebrow at his friend. "Why?"

"Because I have a conscience, Eren," Armin snapped back, finally giving his friend an irritated glare.

"I mean, so do I, but I don't waste that on ghouls who actively try to kill me." He looked up in boredom from where he was learning on her kitchen table.

"That excuse is getting really old," Armin grumbled back.

"Armin, what you're doing right now is like those clickbate articles on Google that show those cute little stories about the lion that befriends the baby antelope." He sat up. "You think that's the end of a happy relationship straight out of a Disney movie, then the second the photographer walks away, you know that thing was mauled to death and devoured as a midday snack."

"You're such an optimist, Eren," Armin answered. "Honestly, you must have been filled to the brim with childhood wonder."

"She wants to eat you," he deadpanned. "You're nothing to her but a chicken nugget."

Finally, Annie looked over toward the two of them. "Honestly, he's more like a grilled chicken salad. Very lean and healthy."

"As I said," Eren repeated, "she just wants to eat you."

"If she really wanted to eat me, she would have by now. There's nothing really stopping her."

"Except, you know, the fact that Mikasa injured her so badly that she can barely walk."

"That, and he's not properly seasoned," Annie muttered again, finally moving back toward the couch in the living room.

Suddenly, loud pounding could be heard from the door, and Annie's face morphed into something fairly irritated as her eyes rested on the entryway. "Your friend is just trying to get on my last nerves, isn't she?"

"God, will you shut up?" Eren snapped at her. "I've hacked limbs off ghouls who moan less than you do. She's trying to feed your ungrateful ass. You could at lea-"

"You're all unwanted home invaders," Annie deadpanned. "At this point, trying to find something for me to eat is reparations."

"We don't owe you shit," Eren snapped back. "We wouldn't even be in this situation in the first place if you weren't such a territorial bitch."

Annie said something in response to that, but Armin was no longer listening. His eyes were resting on the door as well, brow furrowed, almost positive that whoever was standing outside wasn't Mikasa. The knocking was aggressive, blunt, and if it had been Mikasa ,she wouldn't have even done that in the first place. She would have just walked in.

His pondering was answered in a second, however, as more knocks sounded, this time accompanied by a female voice. "Annie Leonhardt," she said clearly projecting her voice through the door, "this is Rico Brzenska and Jean Kirstein of the CCG." A pause. "We know that you are harboring a ghoul in your home. If you don't open the door, we will enter by force."

Once Eren heard Jean's name, he cursed under his breath and instantaneously, Eren and Armin could both feel Annie's cold blue eyes cutting into them like daggers.

Annie stood up with an impressive amount of speed, considering her injuries. "You led them there, didn't you?" she deadpanned.

"We had no idea they were following us," Eren defended, returning her glare.

"Oh, you had no idea. How comforting." Her gaze shifted to Armin for a moment, making it very clear that she was equally as angry with him as Eren. "Truly, with my death I at least will be at peace knowing you were unaware of the obvious threat you were to me at a base level."

"I don't know what the hell you want us to do at this point," Eren snapped back, and Annie's glare returned to the brunet, except it was far more aggressive than it had been a moment ago.

"I just want you two to know what you did. I never asked for your help in the first place. In fact, I openly opposed it." She looked toward Armin again. "I now have to be a stranger in my own fucking home and make scarce of myself. This was the place I made for myself without anyone's help. Though you wouldn't understand that, would you, human?"

Armin sighed, cutting off another aggressive response from Eren. "We're sorry, Annie. We didn't mean to get you caught up in anything, and I know apologies are useless right now. But I agree, we do owe you one. For now, let's focus on getting out of here alive, then we'll make it up to you somehow."

"If I survive this, I'll send your family roses as a thank-you for your unbridled generosity," she deadpanned.

The second those words left her mouth, the front door vanished in an explosion of splinters, as a gigantic sickle ripped the structure off it's hinges. Eren only recognized one of the Investigators who then stepped inside, but he outwardly cringed when he saw that it was in fact his former partner.

Jean's brown eyes very quickly skimmed the room, before resting on Eren, who made eye contact with him defiantly. "Alright, Eren," Jean started, giving his old friend the stern look he always used when addressing ghouls on the job, "where is Mikasa?"

"Just missed, her actually," Eren replied coolly. "She stepped outside for a minute, I think to disembowel a child somewhere? She didn't really say, but you know. She's gotta go do whatever it is bloodthirsty monsters like her do."

He was not amused by Eren's sarcasm. "Eren, this isn't a joke. If you don't cooperate with us now, there will be serious consequences."

"I already know you're going to kill us all, so believe me, pal, there's nothing you can say to me right now that will make me cooperate with you in the slightest."

"How about I just kill you all where you stand? Would that be preferable?" The threat came from Rico, who was still standing in front of the door, armed with a flexible weapon made from a sickle-shaped bikaku kagune. However, her threat quickly became very ineffectual because in the next instance, she was flung into a far wall by a well-placed kick to her head from the masked figure who had just rushed into the room.

Mikasa quickly crossed the small room to stand next to Eren, where she promptly dropped the duffel bag she'd been carrying on the couch near Annie.

Jean eyed the bag with a cold expression. "Groceries?" he deadpanned.

"If I told you that another ghoul killed him, you probably wouldn't believe me, would you?" Her voice was even.

"Maybe if I was a damn fool, sure," he replied, his tone clipped.

As he spoke, Rico pulled herself to her feet, approaching Jean, who now had all his attention on Mikasa, as she was clearly the biggest threat in the room in his mind. In a way, he was probably right - Annie was too injured to do anything, and even if she wasn't, Mikasa was certain she wouldn't get involved if it wasn't for her own self-preservation, and Eren didn't even know how to use his kagune.

Jean advanced on Mikasa as her own kagune appeared. The quinque unfolded, taking the form of four large, flat, tail-shaped white blades. They centered around a red cylinder in the middle, just above the weapon's handle. Shortly after the blades formed, they seemed to fuse together, creating something shaped like a canon. Thick red lines separated each segment and the nozzle of the newly created gun pointed directly at Mikasa, who was tensed up. Once her eyes fell on the shape the quinque formed, however, Mikasa froze. It was like she had instantaneously been paralyzed, like her entire body had been turned to lead. Her entire world had completely stopped; she no longer had any concept of the very real danger she was in as th Ghoul Investigator walked closer toward her, restricting her ability to move even more as she was backed into a corner. She felt like her soul was being sucked out of her body, like an incredible heaviness was crushing her, as Mikasa recognized the red-and-white blades that created the outside of the cannon-shaped quinque.

They were her father's.

She knew it for a fact - she had seen it hundreds of times, and it looked almost exactly like hers. The weapon that Jean was now brandishing at her was made from her father's kagune. Once her back finally touched the far wall she was being lead toward, Mikasa could feel tears form in her eyes, stinging her like tiny needles. She had thought that she'd never see her parents or anything about them again. She was sure that they had both been murdered and unceremoniously ripped apart for various uses by the CCG. It probably wasn't too surprising that they made her father's kagune into a quinque, as that was usually standard with ghouls killed during investigations, but she never in a million years would have imagined that she'd one day be staring it in the face.

Slowly, Mikasa's eyes made contact with Jean's, only to notice that he looked somewhat surprised by her hesitation to fight back. The expression on his face was harsh, but not cold, like he was trying very hard to gauge what to do next. For half a second, Mikasa opened her mouth, as if to say something to him, to ask him a dreaded question, but the words simply wouldn't come out. Instead, she dropped her red-and-black eyes from his cold brown ones, her eyes slamming shut as the tears started to run down her face.

She couldn't do it.

She couldn't bring herself to fight and destroy the only thing that remained of her father.

That was how she always fought, especially when it came to Ghoul Investigators - she disarmed them, she destroyed their quinques so she wouldn't have to kill them. And Mikasa knew she'd never be able to bring herself to hurt Jean, not someone she knew personally, someone who had genuinely been her friend until only a couple months ago. For a second, Mikasa thought she heard her name being called, but the sound was distant and muffled, as if she was underwater.

"The old man wasn't joking about that quinque," Rico commented suddenly, looking over from where she was watching the others, her own weapon poised. "Go ahead and finish her off."

Jean looked over to his partner for just a second, then back to Mikasa, who was looking at him again. The tears streaming down her face were still very present, but she was still too conflicted to even move - she had no idea what to do. Finally, he sighed, so softly that nobody else could hear him. "You knew whoever this was made from, don't you?" Mikasa didn't reply, but Jean apparently took her silence as answer enough, because he sighed once more. "I'm sorry. I didn't want it to be like this, but I have a job to do. Your life is the only thing that can make up for the ones you took."

The blond Investigator quickly freed two of the blades from their shape hugging the cannon and they dived toward Mikasa, as if controlled by his will. She was slow to react to the sudden attack, and both of them stuck fast in each of her shoulderblades, running through to the wall behind her and holding her in place. Jean hesitated for a few more seconds, but finally forced himself to activate the cannon on the quinque. As it began to charge up the blast that would easily kill her, Jean found himself looking away.

Everyone in the room became aware of a flash of light, and a vibrant, shining emerald green, as only one word could be heard:

"MIKASA!"


	18. #NotAllGhouls

In an instant, Eren felt numerous changes overcome his body, the first and most distinct being a surge of strength unlike anything that he'd ever experienced before. He could suddenly see everything with a much sharper clarity, as if someone had illuminated the entire room for him. In the next second, he felt a dull pressure in his lower back, and four emerald green tentacle-shaped limbs appeared in his line of vision, curling around his body after emerging from his back. Almost as if the limbs had a mind of their own, the tentacles set higher lashed out at the wall directly above where Mikasa was pinned, expanding as if made of elastic to sink deeply into the wall. Without thinking, controlling it as readily as he would his own hand, Eren retracted the excess length back into his body, launching himself toward Jean before he or Rico could react.

Eren's body made contact with Jean's with such force that he staggered back just as the charged blast from the cannon fired. His aim was thrown off, however, and as the blades of the quinque were ripped from Mikasa's shoulder, the gun instead went off toward a corner of the room, almost disintegrating the chair it hit. For a moment, Eren looked back at Mikasa. She had slumped to the floor, leaning against the wall, but seemed unharmed except for the small wounds where the quinque had pinned her.

Rather quickly, Mikasa seemed to snap out of her terrified trance and become aware again as she looked up at him, red-and-black eyes widened in what could only be described as shock. "Eren..." she murmured. "You're..."

"You're a ghoul."

Eren quickly snapped his head back around to face Jean, who was staring daggers at him. Still, despite the anger that was definitely present, there was something else very clear in his expression: Shock. Disbelief. Betrayal. In fact, the look Jean was now giving Eren wasn't unlike the look Eren had given Mikasa the first time she'd used her kagune in front of him. When their eyes met, Eren could see Jean set his jaw, the shock in his expression being replaced very quickly by rage.

"What the fuck?" Jean muttered, voice so low that Eren could barely make out the bewildered statement, eyes shifting between the newly formed kagune and the new color of his eye. "What the actual fuck are you?!" That time, the question was asked with far more than mere anger; if the glare on Jean's face wasn't enough to make it excruciatingly clear that he was now accusing Eren of deceiving him for all the years they had known each other, the cold tone of his voice spoke volumes.

As the burst of rage he felt that summoned the kagune subsided as quickly as it had come, Eren felt the limbs fade away. That small burst had almost completely drained him, and as the shock began to wear off, Eren had no idea how to sustain it. "I'm human," Eren replied instantly, with such conviction in his tone that Jean actually arched any eyebrow at him.

"Human." Jean let out a shaky, bitter, bark of a laugh. "Yeah, right. You're one of them. One of those monsters."

Eren shook his head, trying to keep his voice even. "I'm not a ghoul. I've never been a ghoul."

"You might be right. You might not be a ghoul - after all, only one of your eyes changed. I think monstrosity is a much better way to describe what you are." His hands seemed to tense on his weapon. "I don't know what the fuck you are, but you're sure as _hell_ not a human. You're no more human than that murderer behind you is."

Eren raised his hands up, taking a step closer toward his friend. "Jean-"

"Don't come near me!" he shouted, poising the bloodied blade that had held Mikasa to the wall behind them a few minutes ago at his former partner. "You just stay where you are, you fucking freak. I won't hesitate to kill you."

Armin watched the scene play out from near Annie's couch, where the white-haired Investigator, Rico, had them both held up by a quinque of her own. She was only paying them a small bit of attention, however, as she kept her eyes on Jean, Eren and Mikasa. Clearly, she didn't see the human and the injured ghoul who could barely breathe as much of a threat at all. Annie had finally slumped onto the ground by the arm of her couch, back pressed against the side of the furniture. Armin's eyes shifted between the cushion-sized space between where Annie was weakly gasping and the duffel bag that Mikasa had dumped on the sofa, presumably full of human flesh. An idea was quickly forming in his head, and he was trying to bite back bile at the thought of what he would have to do next in order to pull it off.

Slowly, he approached the couch. Apparently, Rico noticed the small movement in her peripheral vision because her entire head snapped back to glare at Armin through her cold silver eyes. She didn't object to him slowly lowering himself on the seat, not breaking eye contact with her the entire time, hands in the air to show her that he wasn't trying to pull anything.

"You'd best not move from that spot," she ordered, her tone highly dangerous.

Armin nodded. "Of course." Eventually, after several more long seconds of her eyes cutting into him like daggers, Rico refocused her attention to the bigger threat, leaving him unwatched on the couch. Armin leaned toward the arm, night next to Annie's head.

"They're not watching us," he whispered to her, voice barely audible, and Annie shot him a glare from out of the corner of her eye. "I'm going to pass you something to eat when I can."

Finally, Annie turned her head ever so slightly. "Why?"

"Because you can take them by surprise."

"I'm not going to," she deadpanned. Armin rolled his eyes before giving the stubborn ghoul a somewhat exasperated glare. "This is your mess, not mine." Her tone was cold.

"It became your mess the second they barged into _your_ house!" he hissed back. "If they kill or arrest Eren and Mikasa, you'll be next," pressed, quieter than before. "You'd be saving your own hide just as much as theirs." He hesitated. "Unless you like the idea of either dying or spending the rest of your life half-starved in solitary confinement, I suggest you do _something_."

Armin got no response besides a small grunt that sounded somewhat affirmative, so he took that as a begrudging agreement.

Slowly, hyper-aware of where Rico's eyes were placed, he reached out toward the bag sitting mere inches from him. Armin tried not to wince at the very small sound of the zipper being undone, but it seemed to have gone unnoticed by the Investigator. Armin failed to repressed an outward shudder when he dipped his hand into the bag and it came into contact with something wet and slimy, something that was an hour ago part of a living human being. Quickly, he leaned away from the bag, throwing his arm over the side of the couch to both hide the blood and pass the food to Annie.

She very quickly took the ball of flesh from his hand, and within seconds, her labored breathing stopped. She didn't make any movement to stand, however. Annie slowly shifted her body so she had a better view of the scene and seemed to be hesitant to make any sort of movement with Rico so close by. Still, Armin noticed her kagune envelop her arm as she remained ducked behind the couch, so she was clearly planning something. It was probably just best to leave her to her own devices, and pray to god that she would actually help his friends before saving herself.

"So, that's it, is it?" Eren finally asked Jean, finally letting anger seep into his tone. "How long have I known you, Jean? You're really going to toss all that to the side, to actually threaten me, because of something you barely understand?"

"You had a kagune growing out of your back," he deadpanned. "You're a ghoul. You lied to me. All that time, and you've been some kind of _monster_ that put on this big act about how much he hated ghouls." Eren was about to cut him off, but Jean continued to talk. "Oh, sure, Eren, I bought that sob story that you sold everyone. The poor little son of a Ghoul Investigator that lost his mommy to a ghoul attack, so he grew his big-boy pants and wanted to aveng-"

"YOU SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH!" Eren stepped forward again, his hands balled into fists. "You don't know shit," he seethed, shaking with rage. "You have no idea what you're even talking about, like usual. I wasn't like this up until two damn days ago, but you don't care about that do you, Jean? You like to run your own mouth without even considering it from another point of view but yours."

Jean snorted. "That's real rich, especially coming from someone who cut ghouls down without so much as a second thought, up until your fucking girlfriend turned out to be one." His cold eyes rested on Mikasa, who was still standing behind Eren. "I know you had something to do with this," he growled. "Everything was fine until you caused everyone around you a hundred fucking problems."

"Shu-" Eren started to say, but Mikasa suddenly reached out, placing her hand on his shoulder. Her gaze finally shifted from their weary place on his weapon, to Jean's face, expression changing from distressed to annoyed. Her eyes narrowed as she stepped out from behind Eren.

"I'm not going to waste my breath trying to convince you of anything," she murmured. "I know what I did and didn't do. I-"

"Your entire existence is a curse!" Jean lashed back out at her. "Just look around you, Mikasa. If it wasn't for you, dozens of families wouldn't have been ripped into pieces."

"You still have no evidence that I had anything to do with that."

Jean snorted in scornful laughter, but otherwise ignored she said anything. "If it wasn't for you, Eren wouldn't have had to decide between a career he's worked his entire life toward, and a deceitful monster that tricked him into believing she loved him. Armin wouldn't have been torn from his career because he tried to defend you. You might have fooled them, but you don't fool me. I can see right past your pretty little facade." He sneered at the glare Mikasa was giving him. "Even now, I bet you want nothing more than to kill me, don't you?"

Mikasa's voice was calm, despite the glower on her face. "If I wanted to kill you, I would have done it that night I disarmed you as easily as I would have an infant."

The blades of Jean's quinque brandished toward Mikasa. Her glare faltered slightly, but she still stood her ground that time, now that her initial shock had worn off. "Try to kill me now," Jean challenged.

"I have no desire to hurt you." Her voice was soft.

"Because you know you'll lose this time," he almost laughed.

Mikasa shook her head. "I haven't forgotten that we were friends once, or that you once had feelings for me far stronger than that of just friends."

"The second you revealed your true colors, that relationship died," he growled back. "You're nothing more than a beast who deceives everyone around you, and I'm not going to fall for it. It's bad enough you've done god knows what to Eren. You're not dragging me down with you as well."

"You really are an idiot." Jean's eyes shifted to Eren. "Listen, Jean," Eren pressed, his voice as calm as he could keep it. "I still don't know how I feel about ghouls. But with someone like Mikasa, I can accept it." For a moment, he stole a glance at her, and was somewhat surprised to see that her eyes were glistening, as if she was fighting back tears again. "I can understand that she's still the person I always knew she was, because nothing has really changed. The only thing that really changed was how I saw her." He swallowed a lump forming in this throat. "That was my fault, not hers. She wasn't a monster before I knew she was a ghoul, and she sure as hell isn't one now. Look at yourself right now, Jean, and tell me that you're not the one acting like a stupid beast and a monster."

When Rico finally got tired of listening to the banter between the ghoul, the half-breed and the Dove, and finally turned her attention completely from her and the sack of meat on the couch beside her, Annie struck. She had noticed within seconds of them barging into her house that the white-haired investigator was in fact not a real Dove, but was instead a ghoul. It had thrown her off a bit, but not enough that she was above attacking her; if the stupid bitch wanted to play Genocide Police with the short-tempered human holding the other two up, Annie would treat her no differently than she would any other Investigator.

Annie knew that she'd never have enough time to ensure that the ghoul was dead before moving on to the human, so she had preemptively decided to knock her out rather than attacking for damage. As she was clearly relying on herself, and not the ghoul that had frozen like a terrified child - her name escaped Annie; it was something Japanese, she vaguely recalled - she'd have to take out both the ghoul Dove and the human before either of them caught wind of her movements. That quinque the male was holding looked nasty, and Annie didn't really want to butt heads with it.

The only thing that really helped her was the fact that her living room was tiny, so it was easy to ambush the ghoul with minimal effort; her attention was focused entirely on the other three, so Annie had already brought the flat end of her kagune down upon her temple before she even knew was was going on.

By the time she finally turned to the human, however, her momentum was cut off, as he had seen her take out his partner and with a curse, he pointed the canon of the quinque directly at her. Annie braced herself for the blast by holding the blade of her kagune in front of her face and crystallizing her entire upper body. The kagune absorbed the majority of the hit, though she was still pushed back a few feet from force alone. Still, her kagune and armor survived the powerful attack without so much as a scratch and Annie softened the film on her body once more.

When the light finally lifted and the human saw that his attack hadn't even phased her, his face shifted from confident to the shock that always followed a person or a ghoul seeing how her armor worked. Before he could fully recover from the realization that his weapon had been literally useless, Annie struck again, lashing out straight at his temple with her massive sword to knock him out cold in a matter of seconds. Quickly, she looked back at the other Dove, and seeing that she was still out, Annie poised her blade over his chest, preparing to ram it through him.

Out of the corner of her eye, Annie noticed a motion, and turned on a time, her blade poised toward the neck of what she was assuming was the other Investigator. She stopped herself dead in her tracks when she realized that the figure who had approached was not the ghoul, who was still unconscious on the other side of the room, but rather the brown-haired half-breed. With her blade pressed up against his throat, he intelligently opted not to say anything, but the look he was giving her looked somewhat surprised at her lashing out at him.

"Don't kill him," he finally growled at her, after the shock wore off.

Annie lowered her weapon, because the last thing she wanted to deal with was the bitchy female ghoul mistaking her motion as aggression towards him and attacking her again. "What?" she finally deadpanned, as she was quite sure that she didn't hear him clearly. There was no way in hell this hybrid had just told her to spare the life of a Dove who had been trying to kill him thirty seconds ago.

"Don't kill him," he repeated without skipping a beat. "He's disarmed and unconscious. You don't need to kill him. He's not a threat to you or any of us."

"He's a Dove," she replied, her tone dead. "One that has seen all of our faces. You don't consider that a threat?"

"He's a friend," the brunet seethed back.

For a few seconds, not even Annie was able to control the look the crossed her face; if it reflected the thoughts that were racing through her head right at that moment, it was an even mix of both disgust and unfathomable annoyance. It was short-lived, as she quickly composed herself and turned her back on the two, her kagune finally vanishing. One glance at the expression on the half-breed's face told Annie that arguing wasn't worth it; he had his jaw set and was glaring at her, daring to say anything to contest his conviction. She didn't have the time or the patience to go at it with someone as suicidal as he and his friends clearly were.

"Fine." She stepped out of the living room and into an adjacent hallway, without giving the group of freaks without so much as a second glance.

Armin looked like he was going to say something to her, but Eren cut him off. "Give it a rest, Armin. We've already pissed her off enough." For a second, Eren thought that Armin was actually going to listen to him, but then he saw the look on his old friend's face and he audibly groaned. "Whatever you're thinking, knock if off now. We're not dragging that ghoul into this."

"She could be a powerful ally for us," he mused to himself more so than Eren. "I mean, you've seen her kagune."

"I've also seen her shitty attitude," Eren replied, shooting a glare toward the spot where she had seen just standing. "She's the kind of ghoul I killed every single day, Armin. She cares nothing about others and sees people as nothing more than livestock."

Armin arched an eyebrow at him "And how the hell would you know how she cares about others?" he questioned. "You've known her for four hours. Twice in that time, she's been fighting, one time, might I add, which was directed at you. We don't know a damn thing about her."

"Which is exactly why I don't trust her!" Eren snapped.

"And why is that, Eren?" Armin asked, voice as calm as ever. "Is it because she's a ghoul?"

Eren didn't immediately answer; the unexpected question did make him hesitate for a moment, as he knew deep down that Armin had hit the nail right on the head. He was right. Eren didn't trust her because she was a ghoul, and he wasn't going to deny it. So far, the only ghoul he'd encountered since he'd left Shinganshina had immediately tried to kill them all, so Armin's theory of #NotAllGhouls wasn't really keeping up well.

"Yeah, it is," he finally growled. "She's a damn ghoul, and I have no reason to trust one of her kind."

"You mean like Mikasa?" His tone was flat.

"Don't start with that again!" Eren bristled. "You're not going to shove Mikasa back in my face every ti-"

"Then I'll you use you as an example instead," Armin snapped back, cutting him off. "You're a ghoul. You're one of her kin."

Eren's tone became low. "I'm _not_ a ghoul."

Armin just crossed his arms over his chest, looking Eren up and down in an overly exaggerated way. "Okay, Eren." Ignoring the venomous look Eren was now giving him, Armin continued, "Either way, you can't deny that she'd be helpful."

"If she can stop trying to kill us for five minutes, sure," Eren muttered. "I wouldn't count on that, though."

"She just saved all our lives."

"She only did that to save her own ass."

"And how do you explain her sparing Jean?" Armin asked. "She barely even fought back when you told her not to kill him." Eren just rolled his eyes, which annoyed Armin more, mainly because he was blatantly ignoring his question. "It just boils down to the fact that you want to be racist and judgmental towards ghouls," he seethed. "You don't want to give them a chance, because you're afraid that your opinion of them will be proven wrong. You-"

"You know what?" Eren snapped back, raising his hand to silence Armin's berating. "Fine. You're right. I'm just a racist asshole and that ghoul that tried to kill us all is _clearly_ worthy of our trust and faith. We should _totally_ invite her to join us. If you can somehow convince that miserable bitch that it's a good idea for her to tag along with us, I won't say another word about it."

Armin didn't say anything to that, and the two fell into silence as they waited for Annie to come back into the main room. After a few seconds, Eren noticed that Mikasa didn't seem to be nearby and after briefly sweeping the room for her, he saw that she was still standing near where Jean had dropped to the ground, eyes fixed on the floor.

At first Eren thought that she was looking at Jean himself, but when he got a little closer, he realized that her eyes rested on the quinque on the floor beside him. "Mikasa?" he prompted, almost hesitating to approach her. His brows furrowed a bit when she didn't react. "Hey." He gently reached out and cupped her face in his hands, turning her gaze from the discarded weapon to his own eyes. "What happened?" he finally asked, as he was more than a little worried about her fixation with that particular quinque. She had completely shut down when it had first been brought out, and now she was staring it like a month drawn to a light, even though she had to have known how urgent it was they got moving before more Investigators came by.

When the distress on her face only seemed to worsen and tears actually began to form in her eyes, the concern on his own face deepened. Slowly, his hands fell to his side and his eyes shifted to the weapon as well, and when he finally got a good look at it, he felt a strong sense of dread come over his entire body. It looked almost hauntingly familiar to him - the blinding whites and deep red lines dividing the four blades, all centered around a canon that could have only been made from an ukaku kagune. It reminded him very strongly of Mikasa's kagune - almost uncannily so.

"It's my dad." Her voice was so soft that Eren barely heard it, and the tears that had just formed in her eyes finally began to slide down her cheek. "There's no doubt in my mind that...thing... was made from my father's kagune." Her gaze fell from Eren's. "I'm sorry. I couldn't-"

Her words were cut off as Eren suddenly wrapped his arms around her back, pulling her into a tight hug. For a second, her eyes just widened at the unexpected gesture from him, but within seconds she recovered, slowly burying her face into his chest as his hands traced small circles across her back. Her tears stopped as if on command and a small smile traced her lips.

"Don't apologize," he breathed into her ears before finally pulling back from the embrace. "You did nothing wrong." Eren's eyes hardened when he looked down at the quinque again. Of course, it was just standard procedure to make the kagunes of ghouls killed during investigations into quinques. That was nothing new, but to knowingly use such a quinque against a ghoul who was directly related to the ghoul that was first killed... That was a low that Eren would have never fathomed sinking to. Sometimes it was even hard for Investigators to put the fact that quniques were essentially weapons made from the severed limbs of creatures they killed behind them. He hadn't thought Jean to be the type of person to put someone through that, either.

Clearly, he was wrong.

With a sigh, Eren bent down and picked the quinque up by the handle, trying to ignore the fact that he was holding the closest thing they had to a corpse of someone he had known for almost his entire life. His fingers squeezed a trigger on the bottom of the handle that caused the weapon to fold up, forming the shape of a silver briefcase. Eren was certain that did very little to ease whatever emotional turmoil Mikasa was no doubt hiding from him, but at least it no longer looked like his kagune.

"What do you want to do with it?" Eren finally asked. Mikasa didn't answer, as she kept her eyes locked on the suitcase in Eren's hands. The past several minutes had been such a clusterfuck for her, that Mikasa barely could tell which way was up and which was was down. She had thought that she'd never see head or tail of either of her parents ever again, and now here she was, being given the choice as to what to do with was essentially her father's remains - the only remnant she had of either of her parents, the only thing that the CCG hadn't taken from her and destroyed. Everything else about her parents and the people they were was restricted to her memories and her heart, but this was something physical, something real.

But it was also a quinque.

It was a weapon, created specifically to murder others. It was the closest thing she had to her father, but it wasn't him and it would never be him. Quickly, three choices game to the front of her mind: they could leave it where they found it, they could take it along with them, or they could destroy it. Leaving it behind would be the easiest thing to do, but Mikasa wasn't sure she could do that. Apart from the fact that there was always the risk they might encounter Jean and the quinque again, Mikasa knew that her father would never have wanted his kagune used as nothing more than an instrument of death for hundreds of other ghouls. The other option that Mikasa knew wasn't really an option was destroying it. She couldn't. Even if it was probably the wisest thing to do, she couldn't bring herself to that point. Her father deserved better than that, to have the only physical reminder that he ever even existed to be destroyed and thrown out like garbage.

That only left one choice, and while Mikasa didn't want to drag it around with her, it was the lesser of three evils. They could make a decision on what to do with it later. For now, they could just put it in her car where it would at the very least be safe and not used for harming anyone innocent.

Finally, she sighed. "I want to keep it." Eren frowned, but didn't question her decision. She could tell by the way his brow was furrowed that he didn't approve of such a choice, but he didn't make any of his protests heard. "I'll carry it," she murmured and Eren let her take it from his hands, as she held the briefcase from the bottom and rested it against her torso.

Finally, the two of them looked over to where Armin was standing. During their conversation, Annie had come back into the living room, this time carrying a bag over her shoulders that they assumed carried some basic supplies, and Armin was saying something to her.

He looked upset when Eren's gaze finally shifted to his. "Don't you think there's safety in numbers?" Armin pressed.

"No." She turned away from him again.

"But-"

"I don't want your help," she snapped again. "I was doing just fine for myself before you came along. Unlike people, ghouls are completely capable of fending for ourselves." Her cold blue eyes cut into him like daggers when she looked back at him, almost as if accusing him of something. "Most of us don't have a choice but to do so."

"Annie-"

"Listen, Handsy," she practically snarled, "I hate you, in case that wasn't terribly evident." Her eyes shifted to the direction of his friends. "I hate _all_ of you. As if it wasn't bad enough that you're a human, in the course of three hours, you three have impaled me, invaded my house until a Dove with a grudge and a ghoul posting as an Investigator showed up at my doorstep, forced me out of a home that I took years to build for myself alone, without the aid of anybody else. I want nothing from any of you then for you to all keel over and die."

"Two thirds of that wasn't even our fault," Eren muttered, but Annie ignored him.

"I would sooner gouge my own eyeballs out of my skull with a dull spoon then go anywhere with any of you."

"This could just be me," Armin said as she moved to walk away again, "but you don't seem to be nearly as self-sufficient as you claim." She stopped once more, to glare at him, but otherwise said nothing. "I mean, look at the facts. Mikasa here," he gestured toward her, "was imprisoned for well over a month without any food, and she was still able to beat you in a fight. I'm part of the only reason why you're even alive in the first place. You were going to be left there to die with no ability to walk, let alone stand on your own." He ignored how much harsher her glare had grown. "Even now, you were only able to overpower those two because I passed you something to eat. I think you need help more than you'd like to admit, especially now. You're a target, just like the rest of us, and if you're on your own you'll be easier to pick off than a scab. It'll be way too simple for them to kill you alone than it will be for you to be with us. It may be our fault that you're here in the first place, yes, but damn it, Annie. You can't be on your own right now. Not with the CCG on us like they are."

Finally, Annie leaned back against one of the walls, arms folded across her chest and eyes closed. She said nothing, but made no motion to leave.

When Eren and Mikasa finally approached the two of them, Armin's eyes rested on his two friends. "If we're going to be traveling together for a while, we should probably formally introduce ourselves. I'm Armin," he gestured to the two figures behind him, "and this is Eren and Mikasa."

"I really don't give a fuck." She didn't even look at them.

A small sigh came from Armin's lips before he noticed the quinque in Mikasa's arms. "What's that?"

"It's made from her dad's kagune," Eren answered for her, as she just started at the floor when Armin questioned it. "She wants to take it with us." He gave Armin a somewhat grim look.

"Mikasa," Armin said, also frowning at her. "I'm sure you're weighing your options over in your head, but..." He hesitated, as if choosing his words very carefully. "The safest option would be to destroy it. I'm sure it has incredible value to you. Believe me, I get it, but there are a lot of risks that will come with bringing that along with us. Remember, it's a weapon, not a photograph. You don't need a quinque to keep his memory alive, Mikasa."

"It's almost cute how you think you know more about this subject than a ghoul does," Annie spoke up from where she was leaning against a wall. Everyone's eyes shifted in her direction, but she just looked at Armin. "Are your dead relatives buried in a cemetery?"

"Actually, my parents are buried in the digestive track of a ghoul." Armin didn't skip a beat. "Same with the mother of the family who took me in after I was orphaned, but sure. We humans have no idea what's like to lose all traces of our loved ones."

For a couple seconds, not even Annie said anything, but she eventually looked at Mikasa.

"Mikasa, was it?" she asked. "Be careful what you decide to do here. If you let the human talk you into making a choice that you regret later, you'll never be able to take that back." With that, Annie went back to ignoring all of them.

"I'm not going to destroy it," Mikasa finally said, voice firm in spite of its soft volume and the tears sliding down her face.

"Do you want someone else to do it?" Armin asked.

Mikasa's eyes fell to the quinque in her hands, ignoring the rather pointed scoff that came from Annie's direction. In the back of her mind, Mikasa knew she was wrong in this situation. She should just concede for the greater good and let Eren or Armin destroy it. She was being incredibly selfish and thinking only of her own conflicted feelings, but at the same time, she couldn't let it go. She didn't have it in her to willingly let go. Not yet, at least. Maybe some day she would, but for the time being, she was far too weak-willed.

Finally, she shook her head. "No."

Armin gave her a somewhat piteous look. "Mikasa-"

"Not yet, Armin." Her voice was flat. "Maybe eventually, but..." Her voice trailed off for a second. "I never even got to say goodbye to either of them." She looked down at the briefcase again. "I'm not ready to say goodbye yet. I will someday, but not today."

Finally, Armin just nodded, unwilling to push her any farther. "Alright. Let's go drop that off at the car, then we'll work on finding that cafe."

Annie looked at them. "What?" Her voice was flat. "After all that, you want to stay in this city?"

"Unfortunately, we don't have a choice," Armin replied. "We know it's risky, but we have no other direction to head in right now."

"That cafe is the only reason we came to this infested city in the first place," Eren grumbled. "We would have gotten there earlier tonight, but someone insisted on attacking us instead of letting us pass through." Eren shot Annie a glare, which she ignored.

Annie just tucked a lock of her blonde hair behind one of her ears, looking directly at Mikasa. "Where exactly are you and your pets headed to, since you insist on staying in Trost?"

Mikasa's eyes were harsh, but she answered her nonetheless, as she was more than aware that Annie was their best ticket at getting around Trost safely for the time being. She definitely did not like Annie or her superiority complex toward Eren and Armin, nor did she really even fully trust her, but she at least could help them avoid getting attacked by angry Doves while they were wandering the streets of a city the rest of them knew nothing about.

"It's called the Violet Grove."

Annie turned away from her. "That's the only place in the city that's safe from Doves. Maybe you aren't all as hopeless as you look."

* * *

The sun had only started to rise when Annie finally stopped in front of what was clearly a cafe - the front of the store featured an outdoor seating area under an awning, though the tables and seats were unoccupied. A large flower bed encircled the entire area, all filled with vibrant purple violets that stopped right by the glass double door headed by a sign that read "Violet Grove" in over exaggerated purple cursive letters. Annie was the first to step inside, and the rest quickly followed her. The interior was just as cozy as the exterior was; filled with tables and booths that were various shades of warm reds and browns and blacks.

The back of the store featured a long brown counter with small stools spaced the entire length, stopping at a glass case that was filled with donuts, muffins, bagels and other pastries. A strong scent of coffee permeated the air of the entire building. Considering how early in the morning it was, it was almost surprisingly busy; almost half the tables were occupied by people sipping at drinks and chatting.

Annie seemed to very quickly catch the attention of one of the staff members, all of whom were dressed in black vests, skirts and dress pants. "Oi!" she called from where she was sitting on the front counter, leg hitched over the side. She gave Annie a wave as she jumped off the counter and onto her feet, approaching the considerably smaller ghoul. It wasn't until the brown-haired woman was mere feet away that Mikasa recognized her. She was that ghoul from the alley that she had met only hours before.

"So, I see you decided to join us for once, eh Annie?" she asked. "I can't believe my eyes. The ice queen has descended from on high to mingle with us commoners." Her brown eyes then fell on the other three. "And you found friends? Isn't that sweet. Did you finally swallow some of that precious pride of yours and actually try to communicate with other living creatures for once in your life?"

"You're as pleasant as ever, Ymir," Annie deadpanned. "Though I would really prefer to speak to Krista."

"Ah, I see," Ymir hummed. "Well, I am just as capable as dealing with your earthly needs as Krista is. She doesn't need to be bothered. I'm assuming you want something other than coffee, eh, Annie? Otherwise you would have never left your precious hunting grounds. Do you need... _help_?"

Annie was glaring at her so harshly that she would have been struck dead if looks could kill.

"Of course, we'll gladly offer your the same services we offer all ghouls." She smirked. "You just have to admit to me that the mighty Annie Leonhardt requires assistance."

"I've seen roadkill with better personality than you have," Annie growled.

Ymir stuck an index finger into her ear and twisted it. "I'm sorry, you'll have to speak up. I'm a bit deaf in one ear."

"If you must know," Annie snarled, "I was just run out of my damn home by Doves because of these imbeciles behind me, so if you can kindly fuck off, and let me talk to your girlfriend, we can both get on with our lives."

Ymir then shifted her eyes to the three figures behind Annie and it took her about three seconds to recognize Mikasa. She was silent for a moment, then suddenly started laughing, so hard and for so long that tears began to form in her eyes. Once she had the attention of every single ghoul in the room with her laughing, she turned her own gaze to the counter, where a petite blonde girl was standing by one of the coffee makers.

"Oi, Krista!"

The blonde returned Ymir's look. "Yeah?" she called back.

"Annie just got ran out of her house by that vegan ghoul!" she called back, projecting her voice across the entire crowded cafe. "You know, the same one I met last night? The one who wouldn't even hunt for herself? The Edward Cullen ghoul!"

Krista rolled her eyes, before quickly jumping over the counter to rush to her side. "Don't say that kind of stuff that loud!" she chided. "It's rude."

"It's a fucking riot, is what it is."

"There could always be humans in here too," Krista continued, but she looked much more irritated than actually angry.

"Relax. They're all ghouls."

Krista finally looked at Annie, her face softening on command. "It's so nice to see you again, Annie. Though I wish it was under better circumstances, if what Ymir said was true. Let me get you and your friends some coffee and you can tell me the whole story."

As Krista quickly ushered the four of them out of the main room and towards the kitchen, Ymir laughed again and threw one of her arms over Krista's shoulders.

"Don't feel bad, Annie. Blue-eyed blondes are my weakness, too."

"Do me a favor and throw that coffee at your girlfriend," Annie deadpanned. "Boil it for longer than normal while you're at it."

Ymir smirked. "That'll only make me hotter, sweetheart."

Krista elbowed Ymir in the ribs before opening the door and letting them all through.


End file.
